Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The White Queen
by Maileesaeya
Summary: Kira and Lacus have been friends since childhood. When ZAFT attacks Heliopolis, Kira is forced to pilot a powerful prototype mobile suit to protect Lacus... and to protect Kira, Lacus chooses to become the pilot of the prototype Strike Gundam. Plunged into the heart of the conflict, the two struggle to protect their friends and discover for themselves what is worth fighting for.
1. The Beginning

**Well... if you all wanted to know where I disappeared to for over six months, now you know. This is my special project that I suspended all other work fo**

**Why, you may ask, did I rewrite this story? I had a few reasons, honestly, foremost among them being simple writing experience. Another was that I'd come to dislike the whole "11th Fleet" angle of the original. Then I had issues with the Murakumo in retrospect. Reine was a Mary Sue, which shouldn't come as a surprise; I was still inexperienced enough at the time to be writing Mary Sues left and right.**

**But I like to think that things have changed. What needed to be reworked on the original version was just too much to simply modify it, so I decided to rewrite the story instead. The premise is the same, but I feel I've improved it quite a bit. I was originally gonna post this on Friday, but between school, my plans for the weekend, and the disastrous state-wide flood that has cut off my home (cars can't get to my house, and the only route in and out is a 40 minute hike) and forced my family to evac (_seriously_, can't we have _one_ year without a disaster?!), I decided to go ahead and post this a little early. The second chapter will be posted Friday of next week, and I plan to update this every Friday at least until I'm caught up to where the original left off.**

**There are a lot of changes to the story. Regardless of anything else, I hope you all come to enjoy the final vision as much as you enjoyed the original one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED or any of the related characters or mecha. I claim ownership over all original mecha and the majority of OCs in the story. Some OCs belong to another fanfiction author, used with permission.**

* * *

"_Kira!" came a soft call. The boy spun around to see a young girl with pink hair running towards him. She launched herself at him, and he caught her, wrapping her in a hug. "I missed you."_

"_You act like its been years, not weeks," the boy joked somewhat weakly._

"_With how things are right now, every week feels like a year," said the girl with a slight frown. The boy sighed and nodded in agreement._

* * *

_Year 70 of the Cosmic Era; tensions were mounting between Earth and the ZAFT organization. Due to the Bloody Valentine tragedy, these tensions suddenly escalated into a full-scale war. It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Earth Forces, with its superior numbers, would be victorious. But these initial assessments proved to be false. Almost eleven months have passed since the conflict began… with no end in sight._

* * *

Phase One: The Beginning

January 25th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

Heliopolis Colony, Lagrange Point 3, Colony of the Orb Union

Heliopolis was an aging, island three-type colony, constructed by the neutral Orb Union at Lagrange Point 3, directly opposite the orbit of Luna, the Earth's moon. Construction of the colony began in Cosmic Era 30, and was completed a few years later. Although it couldn't reproduce the sort of lush natural environments that the newer PLANT colonies of L5 could, it still possessed a beautiful environment.

And it was perhaps the most peaceful location in all of space.

The PLANTs of L5 were the homeland of the ZAFT organization, which was born for the purpose of establishing independence for the PLANTs from their sponsor nations. The colonies of L1, L2, and L4 had all belonged to various Earth nations involved in the conflict, and had almost all collapsed during the eleven months of conflict. A few were still intact, but abandoned, and the neutral lunar city of Copernicus was too close to the Earth Alliance Force's Ptolomaeus lunar base to be able to truly relax, as the people of Heliopolis could. Despite the presence of the nearby Eurasian military satellite Artemis, the base held no strategic significance—even civilians knew that—and had been entirely ignored by ZAFT up to this point.

The present conflict was beyond the scope of the previous World Wars, involving not only almost all of Earth, but space as well. This made neutral nations, especially the small but surprisingly powerful Orb Union, a virtual paradise.

The Orb Union was also well known for their acceptance of Naturals and Coordinators alike, a fact which drew the Yamatos, with their First Generation Coordinator son Kira, to the Heliopolis colony from Copernicus city.

And it was for the purpose of visiting Kira that Lacus Clyne, daughter of the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council, was now at Heliopolis.

"Couldn't you have asked the professor to take some time off?" asked Lacus, pouting slightly as Kira typed away on his laptop. "I visit as often as I can, but it isn't easy getting here, and I don't have long."

"I know," said Kira, smiling apologetically, "and I did ask him, but he wouldn't budge. Said this stuff was top priority." Lacus sighed.

"Fine," she said. "But could you hurry it up a little?"

"I'll try."

With that Kira turned his attention back to his work, holding the documents in one hand and typing away rapid-fire on his laptop keyboard with the other as a news report played in the laptop background. While Kira focused on his work, Lacus focused on what she was hearing, as the report was on the war, though possibly a little out of date.

Fighting near Kaohsiung? She wondered if Lily was there.

A moment later, a mechanical green bird glided into the gazebo and landed on the monitor of Kira's laptop. The bird chirped slightly, tilting its head as it did so. A ball-shaped pink robot started rolling a little wildly on the table.

"Haro! Haro!" said the robot; it hardly ever said anything besides its name like that. The robotic bird, Tori, turned to Haro and chirped, tilting its head a bit more. Suddenly, Haro's eyes began to flash. "Haro! Lacus! Run!"

Kira groaned when he heard that; Haro only did that when…

"Kira!" came the voice of Tolle Koenig, one of Kira's friends. Kira looked up and smiled slightly, but internally, he was weeping, for this was almost a certain sign that Professor Kato had _more_ work to dump on Kira. Still, he would hope for the best…

"So, this is where you've been hanging out with your girlfriend," said Tolle. Kira and Lacus both blushed slightly, but Tolle just barreled on. "Professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you."

"What, again?" moaned Kira.

"He asked us to bring you to him right away," said Miriallia Haw, Tolle's girlfriend. "Well, are you assisting him on something else?"

"Too much!" complained Kira. "I still haven't even finished going through the stuff he dumped on me yesterday." Kira slouched back, sighing.

"That's pretty rude of you, doing all this work when Lacus is visiting," said Mir.

"I asked for a break, but the professor refused," retorted Kira.

"Well, you are the best student at the college," said Tolle, smiling slightly. "At any rate, let's get going."

"You come along too, Lacus," said Mir, grabbing the pink-haired girl's hand.

* * *

ZAFT _Nazca_-class Destroyer _Vesalius_, Flagship of the Le Creuset Team

Athrun Zala sighed as he pulled on the gloves of his pilot suit; he had some serious reservations about the upcoming mission. There were so many things that could go wrong with this mission, including the very real possibility that the information was false, that the mobile suits in the images were Orb machines and unrelated to the Alliance. They were juggling with grenades, several of them high-yield, and hoping to snatch the gem among them and run for it before they went off.

It didn't help that the very idea of Orb helping the Alliance seemed off to him to begin with. Why would they do it? Even if doing so could accelerate Orb's own mobile suit development, it made more sense to remain strictly neutral and just quietly develop the weapons while everyone else ignored them.

"What's wrong Athrun?" asked Yzak Joule. Athrun turned slightly to glance at his teammate.

"Yzak…"

"You look nervous," said Yzak. "That's not like you."

"Sneaking into Heliopolis is going to be too easy," said Dearka Elsman as he finished closing the collar of his pilot suit. "The possibility that we would launch an attack hasn't occurred to them in their wildest dreams." He gave Athrun a slightly mocking smile. "You're not chicken, are you Athrun?"

"That's enough, Dearka!" said Nicol Amalfi, coming up behind Dearka with Rusty Mackenzie right behind him. "This is a dangerous and important mission! We can't let our guard down simply because Orb is a neutral nation!"

"Nicol is right," cut in a new voice suddenly, drawing the attention of the five pilots to a tall, masked blond wearing a white ZAFT commander's uniform.

"Commander Le Creuset…" muttered Yzak, surprised to see their enigmatic commander here.

"This mission is of great significance," said Rau. "The Earth Forces have developed new prototype mobile weapons at a colony of the neutral Orb Union, and under no circumstances should this be treated _lightly_. The success or failure of this mission could have a tremendous impact on the rest of the war." Rau paused, studying his subordinates, and gave a slight nod as he concluded that any joking attitude had vanished.

"The fate of ZAFT rests on your shoulders," he said. "We're counting on you."

The five ZAFT Reds snapped to attention, saluting their commander without any hesitation.

"Yes sir! For the glory of ZAFT!"

* * *

Heliopolis

"So, what's Professor Kato researching at Morgenroete?" asked Tolle as the group headed to an elecar station.

"Hmm… I think he's developing some new operating system," said Kira off-handedly. Lacus perked up slightly at that, wondering if maybe it was a Natural-use mobile suit OS; no doubt, Orb wouldn't want to rely entirely on the handful of Coordinators in their military to pilot mobile suits if the nation were attacked.

"Maybe?" questioned Tolle, glancing at Kira. "You mean you don't _know_ what you're helping with?"

"That's so typical of you," muttered Mir in exasperation.

"Hey, Kira's just an assistant student," said Lacus, coming to her childhood friend's defense. "It's not like he'd be told everything."

"Exactly," said Kira, nodding slightly. "Besides, making inquiries would probably just get me saddled with more work, and Lacus can't stick around much longer."

"So there's an excuse," said Mir. "It doesn't change the fact that this is typical behavior for you. Most people would want to know more."

_Except that if this is related to Morgenroete's weapons development, I probably __**don't**__ want to be more involved than I am_, thought Kira.

"I'm telling you it's not what you think!" came a voice ahead of them, drawing the group's attention to a trio of girls walking their way, a blue-eyed redhead in a pink dress leading the way.

"Then what _is_ it?" asked a brunette with pigtails.

"It's none of your business!" said the redhead.

"Flay…" muttered Kira, slightly surprised. Lacus frowned slightly, falling a little behind Kira, but Tolle and Miriallia didn't notice.

"Oh, Miriallia!" said the brunette suddenly—Misha, if Kira recalled correctly. Her words alerted the redhead, Flay Allster, and the third member of the group, a black-haired girl named Jessica, to the presence of Kira and his friends. Flay's eyes immediately settled on Lacus, and the redhead seemed to recoil ever so slightly away, but only Kira and Lacus herself noticed.

"Did you hear?" asked Misha, rushing over to Miriallia. "Flay got a love letter from Sai Argyle!"

"Huh? From _Sai_?!" gasped Mir in surprise. The words jarred Flay out of her apparent stupor as she stepped forward, a partial glare on her face.

"Come on, this has nothing to do with Miriallia!" she said as firmly as she could manage.

"Why don't you just say yes?" asked Misha. "He's not all that bad or anything, right?"

"It's not _that_…"

"Isn't Sai her fiancé?" whispered Lacus to Kira. The brunet nodded slightly.

"Yeah, it was a parental arrangement, a lot like you and Athrun," he whispered back. Lacus nodded slightly as a car drove past the group on the otherwise deserted road.

"I wonder why he'd write a love letter…"

* * *

ZAFT Transport Pod

"_We have now arrived at the Block Six Maintenance Hatch,_" said the comm. officer, alerting the pilots that they'd reached their mission point. Athrun looked to Nicol, who was nearest the hatch, and nodded.

Nicol nodded back before unsealing the hatch and opening it, giving the Le Creuset Team pilots an unobstructed view… of a decrepit colony block that definitely had seen better days. Athrun raised a hand and waved the team out the hatch while five other soldiers in green pilot suits emerged from the other transport pod.

The main mission plan called for the Reds to capture the enemy weapons, but with a presumed five weapons and only five Reds available, there was just too much chance of them getting killed. The regular soldiers were there to safeguard the Reds and pick up the slack if something was off with their Intel. They all knew that anyone who didn't capture a machine probably wouldn't make it out alive, and if they did it would probably only be through capture, but they'd all volunteered anyways.

Athrun glanced at his watch, waiting for the scheduled time. These hatches were used almost daily, and at an appropriate time, they would automatically open, shutting down their sensor lasers. It was a relic of the time when Heliopolis had been built and more automation had been needed to maintain the colony. If they encountered any maintenance workers, they'd have to kill them, so Athrun hoped they were running a little late today.

Athrun's watch lit up, just as he'd set it to do, and the maintenance hatch opened. The atmosphere had already been vented, and the ZAFT soldiers briefly caught sight of the sensor lasers as they deactivated.

Immediately, all ten soldiers headed inside.

* * *

Heliopolis Technical College

The door of Professor Kato's lab opened, admitting Kira and his friends.

"Ah… I see you finally gave in," said Sai Argyle, Kira's bespectacled best friend, and about the only one in their circle who was a match for Kira intellectually.

"Hey, I thought it was just supposed to be Kira," said Kuzzey Buskirk, another member of their circle.

"You got a problem with us being here Kuzzey?" demanded Tolle irritably. Lacus and Mir noticed someone standing off to the side wearing a brown jacket and hat.

"The professor added this to the workload," said Sai, handing Kira a computer disk.

"Thanks," muttered Kira. Sai pushed his glasses up slightly.

"I tried convincing him to wait or let me handle it, since Lacus was here visiting, but the professor wouldn't budge. It seems this stuff is even higher priority than we realized."

"Thanks for that," said Kira, much more genuinely this time. Sai was Kira's best friend, the most gifted Natural Kira had ever met, and the only person outside of Kira's family to know Lacus's real identity, though there was no hiding her Coordinator heritage.

"Who's that?" asked Mir softly, motioning towards the person standing off to the side.

"Oh… she's a guest of the professor's," said Sai. "She was told to wait here until he had time to properly discuss something with her."

"Hmmm…"

* * *

Morgenroete Interior Dock #1

The ZAFT forces had finished laying explosives throughout the dock, taking advantage of the zero-g environment to move about in almost complete silence. They were now heading to an access hatch that would let them enter the main colony.

"Heh… I can only imagine the looks of shock on their pacifist faces," said Yzak lowly. Athrun frowned, glancing at his teammate before looking forward.

_I wasn't hoping for war, but I'm here fighting one anyways_, Athrun thought to himself. _Kira… where are you now? What is it that you think of this war of ours?_

The thought left a bitter taste in Athrun's mouth.

* * *

Professor Kato's Lab

Kira had just been preparing to leave the lab after determining he didn't need to stay to work on the additional stuff when the colony shook from tremors, knocking almost everyone off their feet, though Kira and Lacus managed to keep their balance without much trouble.

"W-what's going on?" asked Mir fearfully as the tremors subsided.

"A meteoroid?" suggested Sai, rushing over to the door. "Come on, if the colony's shaking this bad, we should probably get to a shelter."

"Damn, why at this time?" muttered Kira as everyone followed after Sai. The lights in the hallway were out, but there was enough light filtering in for them to see by. Sai walked over to the door to the staircase and opened it, seeing people walking up the stairs, though it was obvious that they were scared as well.

"What's this all about?" asked Sai.

"I don't know!" said one of the men as he continued up the stairs, but another paused.

"We're under attack by ZAFT," he said as the students gasped in shock, "some of their mobile suits have entered the colony!"

The blonde girl who'd been waiting for Kato gasped slightly before suddenly running off.

"Hey you!" called Kira, running off after her.

"Kira!" called Lacus.

"I'll be right back!" shouted Kira, even as Lacus took off after him. After running along the corridor for a minute or two, Kira finally caught to the girl and grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?" asked Kira. "It's a dead-end there." Lacus caught up to the two.

"Stop tailing me!" she growled back. "Better get out of here and hook back up with the others."

At that instant, another explosion occurred, as the corridor behind the three collapsed, sending a blast of air their way and knocking the hat off the girl, fully revealing her shoulder-length blonde hair and feminine features. Once the dust settled, Kira looked back behind them.

"Go back already," said the blonde. "I have to check up on something on my own."

"Easy for you to say," said Kira, turning back to her. "In case you didn't notice, the corridor behind us has collapsed." The blonde glared at him.

"Let's see…" muttered Kira. He grabbed the blonde's hand, knowing it would be the only way to get her to follow, and started running. "Here, this way."

"Let go of me you jerk!" said the blonde.

"Jerk?" muttered Kira questioningly.

"I just never thought we'd get… involved," she said, looking away. Lacus looked at her sadly as the three ran down the corridor.

"Don't worry, we'll be okay," said Kira. "There are still shelters left in the factory district."

After another minute of running, the three emerged onto an upper walkway, and saw something that made them all stop.

Two mobile suits, of a design like none they'd ever seen or heard of before, lay on the ground in trailers, waiting to be moved. A gunfight between what seemed to be factory workers defending the trailers and attacking ZAFT soldiers was raging around the two machines.

"What… hey those are…?" murmured Kira. The blonde suddenly dropped to her knees, shaking her head and gripping the rail.

"I knew it," she said. "The Earth Forces prototype mobile weapons." Tears formed in her eyes. "Father, I knew you betrayed us all!" she cried, drawing the attention of one of the soldiers. Kira saw it and grabbed the blonde, dragging her away as Lacus followed.

"Crying won't help you!" said Kira. "Come on now, run!"

* * *

"_Very impressive,_" muttered Yzak as he got the first prototype to stand up. "_Dearka, how about yours?_"

"_Great,_" said Dearka from the cockpit of the second machine. "_Update activated. Nerve links reconstructed. Calibrations set. It'll move._" As he said that, he moved it into a standing position as well.

"_And Nicol?_" asked Yzak.

"Not yet," said Nicol as he typed away, adjusting the OS settings on the third mobile suit. "_Almost there._" No sooner had he said that then he finished and his machine stood as well.

"_Where are Athrun and Rusty?_" asked Dearka. "_Taking their time…_"

"_Heh, I don't think they'll have any trouble,_" said Yzak, smiling. "_Let's stick with the plan. We'll leave with these three. Let's get them to Commander Le Creuset before they get damaged._" With that said, Yzak activated the thrusters on his captured machine and lifted off, Dearka doing the same seconds later. Nicol frowned, wondering if maybe they should go support Athrun and Rusty, but decided they probably didn't need it, and lifted off as well, following the other two as they headed for the harbor exit.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kira had finally led the two girls to a shelter. He activated the intercom.

"See, some people have evacuated here," said Kira as a response came to the signal sent.

"_Is there still someone out there?_" asked someone inside the shelter.

"Yes, my friends and I need to get inside," said Kira. "Please, open the door."

"_Friends? You mean there's more than one of you?_" said the voice.

"That's right," said Kira. The voice was silent for a minute. Then…

"_We're filled to capacity already,_" the guy said. "_There's shelter thirty-seven in the left block, can you make it there?_"

Kira stood straight, looking over at the damage.

"Please, take one of my friends at least," said Kira. "They're just girls. You have capacity for at least one more, right?"

There was a moment of silence, during which Lacus turned her gaze on Kira.

"_Yeah,_ _okay,_" came the voice. "_Sorry we couldn't get all of you._" The door opened and Kira looked at the blonde.

"Get in," he said. She looked at him, confused. Not having the time to waste, he grabbed the blonde, throwing her into the shelter elevator.

"What are you… I can't…" she said.

"Get in, will you?" said Kira, securing her inside. "We'll go to the other side. Don't worry, okay? Hurry!" With that, he shoved her fully inside.

"Wait, don't do it!" said the blonde, but it was too late as the elevator carried her away.

With the blonde gone, Lacus turned her gaze on Kira.

"I hope you're not implying that girls need to be coddled, much as we may love it," she said. Kira glanced at her and smiled slightly.

"Not at all, but it got them to open up and got her in there," he said. "Now come on, let's get going." With that, Kira grabbed her hand and the two ran off, searching for another shelter to escape on.

As they ran along the catwalks of a factory, though, they spotted something that gave them pause.

"Another mobile suit…" Kira whispered. Suddenly, they heard an explosion both in front of and behind them.

"Kira…" whispered Lacus, gripping his shirt. Kira looked back at the standing, gray mobile suit.

"We have no choice," he said softly, as much to himself as to her. "Come on Lacus… we'll need to get out of here on that machine."

The two ran along the catwalk until they reached the open hatch of the machine. Clambering in, Kira took the pilot's seat, while Lacus climbed behind it. Kira closed the hatch, booting up the CPU on the mobile suit.

"What's that?" asked Lacus. Kira looked at the screen in front of him to see some sort of OS display.

**MOBILE SUIT OPERATION SYSTEM  
/Version NV8 – N099/**  
**G**eneral  
**U**nilateral  
**N**euro – Link  
**D**ispersive  
**A**utonomic  
**M**aneuver  
**G.U.N.D.A.M. Synthesis System  
Astray Unit Zero-One "Sakura"  
Orb Self-Defense Force**

"Gun… dam?" whispered Kira. He shook his head and began looking over the OS, eyes widening.

"Wha…? They want to fly this thing with an OS like this?!" he cried. He shook his head, made some minor modifications, and then grabbed the controls. "Hang tight Lacus. I'm getting us out of this place before it blows. Depending on what happens, I might need to recalibrate the OS afterwards."

"Okay Kira," said Lacus, trusting him with every fiber of her being.

* * *

"Rusty failed," said Athrun over the radio to Miguel Aiman, a ZAFT ace and mentor to Athrun. "The last machine has been boarded by an Earth Forces officer." Who Athrun had tried to kill, but he'd run out of ammo and tried to do it with a combat knife; to his misfortune, she still had ammo, and had put a bullet in his leg.

"_What?_" gasped Miguel before turning his attention to the stumbling gray machine that woman had boarded. Miguel fired a few rounds from his machine gun at it, watching it stumble. Then, he put his rifle away and pulled out his GINN's sword. "_Alright then, I'll capture this machine. Athrun, go ahead and make sure you get yours out of here._"

With that, as Athrun began making some OS modifications, Miguel charged the grey machine ahead of him, easily evading the bullets spat from its CIWS guns, and swung the sword. The machine brought its arms up to block, and suddenly shifted color, turning a brilliant white, blue, and red.

"_What in the world?_"

"They're all equipped with a system known as Phase Shift armor," said Athrun as he continued to type away, recalibrating the OS to something that was at least sufficient for proper movement. "Once activated, it renders virtually all physical attacks useless." Athrun activated his own Phase Shift, turning the Aegis a brilliant red. He then used the CIWS guns to destroy a few incoming missiles, as well as an artillery truck.

"_You've gotta get out of here now,_" said Miguel, "_you can't stick around this place forever._" Athrun nodded, and was just about to leave when there was another explosion from elsewhere in the factory district… and another mobile suit emerged, this one with a huge backpack attached.

"_Huh? Another one?_" questioned Miguel as Athrun stared at it in shock. "_Damn it… okay, change of plans: Athrun, see if you can subdue that one real quick._"

Within the new arrival, Kira and Lacus quickly took stock of the situation.

"Those two mobile suits from the factory," muttered Lacus.

"And a GINN as well," said Kira. "The colors of those machines are different from before though; I wonder why." Kira scanned the three mobile suits in front of him. The white machine seemed to be stumbling about and was under attack from the GINN, while the red one turned to face Kira, its posture indicating that the pilot wasn't struggling at all. Kira gulped slightly as the implications of that hit him.

"ZAFT has that red machine," muttered Lacus. Kira nodded slightly, and the red mobile suit suddenly charged at them. Kira ran on his instincts, and sent his stolen machine into the air, putting half his attention back on breaking down and rebuilding the OS as he did so. It didn't take long before Kira was finished, his evasion obviously annoying the pilot of the red machine.

"Let's see… weapons…" whispered Kira as he brought up the equipment listing. He saw one piece of equipment listed as Phase Shift Armor with a few small notes about what it did, and pressed the button to activate it before returning his attention to the other equipment. "Vulcans… beam sabers?"

As Kira reviewed the equipment, the PS armor took effect on his machine, the gray mobile suit taking on new colors as its body and backpack turned white and the central torso turned black.

The red mobile suit charged forward again, reaching out to grab the head of Kira's borrowed unit, but the young engineer leapt back, drawing one of the beam sabers stored on the backpack and rushed forward again, swinging the saber down on his opponent.

"What the hell?!" demanded Athrun of no one in particular as he leapt back, amazed by the unit's evasiveness and caught off-guard by the weapon it had drawn.

Taking advantage of this, Kira finished his quick-build of the OS and reexamined the equipment of his "borrowed" machine, the Astray White Frame "Sakura". The Phase Shift armor system apparently rendered the machine virtually immune to physical blows of any kind, but didn't work well on beam weapons. It was supposed to carry a shield with an anti-beam coating to compensate, but Kira hadn't grabbed it—or some of the other weapons it apparently equipped.

Well, he'd just have to make do and drive off his opponent before the guy pulled out a beam weapon of his own.

"Hold on Lacus… sorry about this," said Kira as he shifted the Sakura's footing.

"It's okay," said Lacus softly.

Moving swiftly, Kira rushed forward and thrust the saber at the head of the red mobile suit, and the pilot stumbled back—apparently, his OS was still closer to the funky one Kira had started with then it was to the operational one Kira had now.

A brief tussle was all it took before the red machine ran for it.

"Miguel, something's wrong," said Athrun. "This new machine is moving perfectly and has Phase Shift as well; we should probably withdraw for now."

"_I think you're right,_" answered Miguel, leaping into the air and shooting off after Athrun.

In the Strike, the white and blue mobile suit Miguel had been attacking, Murrue Ramius let out a sigh of relief. She turned her attention to the newcomer, wondering where it had come from. However, she was grateful for its assistance—she wouldn't have survived this otherwise.

Her adrenaline wearing off, Murrue hissed slightly as the pain in her arm returned to her. That last ZAFT Red, the one who captured the Aegis, had managed to land a bullet in her left bicep, though she was satisfied with having given him a leg wound in return.

Keying the radio to an open channel, Murrue sent a message to the unknown machine.

"I don't know who you are," she said, "but thank you for the assistance." Murrue glanced around. "If you don't mind, I'd like to speak to you face-to-face." With that, she began moving the Strike rather clumsily over to a nearby park. She stumbled, nearly toppling over, but the white machine suddenly rushed next to her and caught the Strike, carrying it the rest of the way and helping move it into a kneeling position. Even though she knew it was mostly due to the incomplete OS, Murrue couldn't help but feel _slightly_ embarrassed by that.

Shaking her head slightly to clear away those thoughts, Murrue deactivated the PS armor before shutting the Strike the rest of the way down and opening the hatch. The unknown knelt down in front of her and opened its own hatch as she stepped out.

The two people to emerge from the new machine had Murrue blinking in surprise.

They were two of the teenagers she'd spotted earlier while defending the Strike: a brown-haired boy and a pink-haired girl, both about sixteen years old, by Murrue's estimate. What were they doing in a mobile suit? Although, maybe they could explain that machine to her; sighing, Murrue waved them over to her.

"You two!" she called. "Thanks for your assistance." The boy nodded while the girl gave a slight smile, before frowning as she looked over the damage.

"Kira!" came a boy's voice suddenly. The three spun around and saw a group of teenagers running over to them frantically. The lead one, a boy with brown hair, panted slightly.

"What… what's going on? What were you doing in that mobile suit anyway?" he asked.

"Lacus and I got stuck in the factory," said Kira. "We came across this mobile suit, and decided to use it to escape." Murrue blinked.

"Wait, so you don't know anything about it either?" she questioned incredulous. The teenagers all turned to her.

"We thought you would," said Lacus. "You're with this mobile suit after all."

"I know about this machine and the ones captured by ZAFT…" said Murrue slowly, "but I don't know anything about the machine you were in."

Kira and Lacus looked at each other. They remembered what that blonde girl had said when they came across the first mobile suits, as well as what the Sakura OS had said.

"You're with the Alliance," said Kira, looking back to Murrue.

"Yes," said Murrue, seeing no point in denying it. She looked them all over; they were civilians, and they'd seen the G-weapons, but… well, it wasn't like there was any real secret anymore. "We never wanted Heliopolis to get involved… at least, not like this. We just wanted Morgenroete to help us build the machines and then leave quietly, but…" She looked around, letting out a sigh. "Well, we can all see the results of that."

Everyone else sighed as well. Murrue looked them all over. "Listen, you should all get to the shelters quickly, so…"

"We haven't been able too," said the brown-haired girl. "Everywhere we've managed to reach so far has been full…"

"I see," said Murrue uncertainly. "Well… I guess we'll just have to stick together until we can find a shelter for you." She glanced between the two mobile suits. "We'll probably need to rely on these things for the time being. I'm guessing we can't recharge the battery on the one you had, but the one I have, the Strike, can be recharged with external power, so we should try to retrieve one of those. Meanwhile, we can try to call for assistance."

"From who?" asked Kira, shifting just slightly between Murrue and Lacus, but only Sai and Lacus herself took notice.

"Under the circumstances, the Earth Forces may be our best bet," said Murrue.

"I see…" said Kira softly.

"Excuse me ma'am, but who are you?" asked Lacus suddenly. Murrue blinked, realizing she hadn't introduced herself.

"Murrue Ramius, a lieutenant in the Earth Forces," she said. "And yourselves?"

"I'm Kuzzey Buskirk," said the blue-haired teen.

"Sai Argyle," said the one with orange glasses.

"Tolle Koenig," said the brown-haired boy who'd reached them first.

"Miriallia Haw," supplied the girl. Murrue's eyes went to the two that had emerged from the unknown machine.

"Kira Yamato," said Kira, supplying his last name to Murrue.

"Lacus Hirano," said the rosette. Murrue nodded slightly, and then set them to work.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"_Sir, Rusty failed,_" came Athrun's voice over the radio. "_An Earth Force's officer boarded the last prototype. Miguel was attempting to capture it when a sixth machine appeared._"

"A sixth machine, you say?" questioned Rau. They hadn't heard of this.

"_Yes sir,_" said Miguel. "_I ordered Athrun to deal with it, but it was moving very differently. I think it has a completed OS, and the prototypes have some kind of armor that rendered my weapons useless, so we felt it was prudent that we both withdraw._"

"Understood," said Rau. "That was a wise decision under the circumstances. Athrun, bring the captured unit aboard the _Vesalius_. I want everyone to withdraw for the time being and begin resupply; I'll head out myself to deal with the last mobile armor, and then investigate this… interesting scenario."

* * *

Heliopolis

Kira had attempted—and failed—to contact any Earth Forces still remaining, but with the low power in both the Strike and Sakura, he couldn't cut through the interference. So, instead, while Sai and the others went to retrieve the trailers holding what Murrue called "Striker packs", which apparently contained extra equipment for the Strike, Kira had begun to dissect the Sakura's mainframe for information.

It didn't take him long to decide not to bring up most of it with Murrue for the time being—this machine was apparently the first in a series of five mobile suits developed with the same technology as the Earth Forces machines. It had two batteries, one in the machine proper and the other contained within its backpack, called the Astray Flight System, hardwired directly to the Sakura itself, which apparently allowed the Phase Shift to extend to the backpack as well.

During this time, he'd done some fine-tuning, but after informing Murrue of a few details he'd learned and explaining that the Sakura was low on power, she'd given him permission to replace the Strike's OS with the one from the Sakura so that he could use it if another attack came before they found friendly forces; Kira hadn't informed her of the details on why the Sakura's OS was complete.

Needless to say, Kira wasn't very happy about the chance of fighting again, but he wanted to be ready for it. He made short work of the Strike's OS as well, so it was now combat ready, but he was still fine-tuning it, just to be sure… and also hacking the mainframe for additional information while he was at it, such as the data on the Striker Packs.

"Kira?" came a soft voice. Kira looked up to see Lacus sitting outside the cockpit. "Do you think we'll be attacked again?" Kira sighed and nodded.

"Those two mobile suits got away," he said. "After all the trouble they've gone through… well, do you honestly expect them to just leave these last two machines alone?" Lacus frowned, but nodded as well.

"It's the Le Creuset Team," she said quietly, so no one but Kira could hear her. "He's the only one who would've done something like this. My father wouldn't have allowed this level of attack to befall a neutral colony." Kira sighed.

"Yeah…" he said in agreement with her comment about Siegel Clyne, "not sure if we can say the same for Athrun's father, though. Mrs. Zala did die at Junius Seven." Kira paused in his work as his hands clenched slightly. "Damn this… I hate war." Lacus smiled slightly.

"That's because you are you," she said, "and don't you ever forget it." Kira smiled back in response. Sai and the others pulled up in the trailers, Sai parking his next to the Strike. The students set to work attaching the Striker pack to the docking hardpoint on the machine's back.

"This would be faster on the _Archangel_," commented Murrue as they were finishing attaching the Striker pack.

"_Archangel_?" questioned Lacus, but Murrue didn't answer.

Just then, a hole was blown out of the central shaft of the colony, drawing everyone's eyes up in shock as a silver-gray CGUE mobile suit flew out, pursued by a red Moebius Zero mobile armor. The two tussled briefly, until the CGUE severed the Zero's gun. It then shot down towards the inactive mobile suits.

_Oh crap!_ thought Kira; fortunately, the Striker Pack locked fully into place, and Kira stood the Strike up, locking a glare on the CGUE above while activating the PS armor and doing a quick weapons check.

The entire colony shook suddenly, as it did when the attack began, and Kira looked up as a section near the harbor blew out… and from the smoke, a massive, white warship flew into the colony.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So, what did you all think? There isn't a _lot_ of change from the original version; some changes to Sai and Flay, but the big change is to the nature and backstory of Kira's mobile suit, replacing the GAT-X110 Murakumo with the MBF-P00 Astray White Frame "Sakura". I have some pretty hefty plans for what happens later, but for now, those are secondary concerns. Like after the latest disaster is over.  
**

**As an aside, I realized only while posting that I forgot to add in my usual descriptions. I'll add those later, but right now, I don't have access to my desktop and I'm operating off a laptop that hasn't been finished software-wise. It might be a little while before I can actually get that done, I'm not sure. For now, I hope you've all enjoyed this, and look forward to the coming chapters.**

**Please read and review! I know everyone's been eager to see this story live again, and frankly, I've been right there with them. Let me know what you all think, I have high hopes for this working out.**


	2. The Collapse

**Well, as promised, here's the second chapter, a little earlier than scheduled. I'm gonna try to post these updates Friday afternoons, after my college class lets out but before I cart off to the card shop for Friday Night Magic. I'm making an exception today, because tonight is a special FNM that I don't want to miss.  
**

**Now, one important thing to note is that these first five or six chapters will need to be reworked, but with the flooding, I'm a lot busier than normal if I want to meet certain schedule demands (like the Theros Release tonight). I do intend to go back and update them, but I didn't want to potentially delay the posts by weeks just to smooth them out some. I considered it for this one because I want to almost totally redo the opening scene and expand on it, but the changes aren't anything major, pretty much identical to canon, the writing is just really lackluster right now. It wasn't until post-Artemis that I really changed things up, so these early chapters very closely resemble the original version for the moment. Again, I intend to fix that, and might do so as early as tomorrow. But for now, I didn't think it was important enough to delay the update.**

**Another thing is that I'd forgotten just how ridiculously popular _The White Queen_ was; in a single week, this story has outperformed many of my other stories that have been up for months (and to some extent, _years_). It makes all the trouble I've gone to for this worth it. While I still fear I may have set Mary Sue loose a little here or there, I think I've got it managed, and if nothing else, I hope you all greatly enjoy this story.**

**Finally, I want to extend a special thanks to Solid Shark; he has been a big help with fleshing out essential pieces of this story, and I wish him the best and hope for his situation to improve. Thanks for everything, comrade.**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Two: The Collapse

January 25th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

Heliopolis Colony

"The _Archangel_…" breathed Murrue as the warship flew into the colony's interior. For a moment, everything seemed to stand still… and then, suddenly, everything got going again, as the CGUE opened fire on the _Archangel_ and the assault ship returned fire with missiles. Unfortunately, the CGUE danced agilely around the missiles, destroying a few, before leading the others to crash into the Central Shaft of the colony. Kira's eyes widened. Heliopolis couldn't take that kind of abuse for long!

Gripping the long rifle of the Launcher Striker pack, Kira brought up the targeting computer, forgetting to check the power levels of the weapon. He locked in on the CGUE, and pulled the trigger.

Kira stared, frozen in horror, as the massive beam of energy lanced out and blasted away the CGUE's arm, before proceeding on to blow a hole in the side of the colony.

"Wh… what kind of power is this?" questioned Kira, horrified. Lacus, crouched down with Kira's other friends, covered her mouth, feeling the same horror as Kira.

In the CGUE, Rau was eyeing the damage readouts with a critical eye even as he pulled back towards the hole blasted in the colony.

"How is that possible?" he muttered to himself in something that might have been awe. "A mobile suit with that much firepower…?"

Even as he contemplated this, Rau couldn't help but smile slightly in sadistic glee of the implications of that sort of power.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

Athrun typed away at the Aegis's keyboard as he thought back to that unknown sixth machine.

Intelligence reports had only revealed to them the existence of five machines, so where had that sixth one come from? More worrisome was the fact that it seemed to be equipped with a working Natural-use OS… which meant that if it reached the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base or the JOSH-A base at Alaska, the Earth Forces would be able to produce operable mobile suits… and that meant nothing but trouble for ZAFT.

"_Commander Le Creuset is returning,_" came a voice over the PA, causing Athrun to glance up from the display, "_damage sustained from a direct hit. Fire fighting and rescue squads to B deck._"

Seconds later, the CGUE entered the hangar, flying backwards, and was stopped by the cables in the hangar, put in place for when a mobile suit couldn't slow down for entry.

The right arm of the CGUE was missing.

"His unit has lost an arm," said a mechanic just outside of the Aegis, voice filled with disbelief.

_What? That's impossible_, thought Athrun as he looked at the CGUE as they began the process of cooling the armor down. _What kind of weapon could do such a thing?_

* * *

The _Archangel_

After the CGUE had fled, Kira had lowered the Strike so that Murrue could get on the prototype's radio and request that the _Archangel_ land and open the catapult so that they could board through it. After the ship had done as requested, Lacus, Murrue, Sai and the others had gotten on the Strike's hand and ridden it to the open catapult, where Kira was now letting them off as a group of Earth Forces soldiers ran up to them.

"Lieutenant Ramius!" called a black haired woman at the front of the group, her voice sounding relieved. Murrue looked over at her.

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," said Murrue, sounding somewhat relieved herself.

"It's a tremendous relief to see that you're safe," said Natarle as she saluted. Murrue returned the salute.

"You as well," said Murrue. "I'm pleased that you protected the _Archangel_. You do realize you saved us."

Kira opened the cockpit of the Strike and clambered out, drawing shocked stares from the Earth Forces soldiers as he descended from the mobile suit.

"Come on, will someone tell me what's going on here?" asked Kojiro Murdoch, the _Archangel_'s deputy chief mechanic (at least, before the original chief was taken out in the attack). "He's just a kid! Barely learned how to shave and _he's_ piloting that thing?"

"Amazing," said Mir as she and the others rushed over to Kira. Lacus, on the other hand, ran straight up to Kira, gripping his arm, and staring into his eyes. Kira's eyes locked with her, a silent conversation almost seeming to pass between them with that glance.

"Lieutenant Ramius, what's going on?" asked Natarle, her confusion obvious. Murrue glanced over at Kira and Lacus before looking down.

"Wow," came a new voice, drawing everyone's eyes to a blond man in a purple and gray pilot suit walking over to them. "What a surprise."

He came to a stop in front of Murrue.

"I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, of the Seventh Orbital Fleet, at your service" he said, giving her a salute. "It's an honor." The other soldiers, including Murrue and Natarle, saluted as well.

"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, of Sector Two, Fifth Special Division," said Murrue, introducing herself as well. "I'm a crewmember of this ship."

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, same division," introduced Natarle.

As the soldiers relaxed again, Mu spoke up. "I would like permission to come aboard this vessel," he said. "May I ask who's in command around here?"

Natarle frowned slightly, her expression somewhat downcast. "The captain," she began, "and all of the superior officers of this ship have perished in battle. Therefore, I believe its Lieutenant Ramius who's next in command."

"Huh?" said Murrue, sounding distinctly worried.

"Less than a dozen of us are left, sir, mostly mechanics and a few non-commissioned officers," said Natarle. "I was fortunate enough to be in the shaft and survive the initial attack."

"You mean the captain's…? It can't be," said Murrue.

"Oh man, what an unmitigated disaster," said Mu. "In any case, please grant me permission, Lieutenant Ramius. The ship I was assigned to engaged the enemy, and was downed."

"Oh, um, sure, permission granted," said Murrue, obviously uncomfortable with being in command.

"And…" said Mu, turning to look at Kira, "who's that?"

"As you can see, he's a teenage civilian," said Murrue, while Kira and the others looked up at them, Lacus holding Kira's right arm and standing just slightly behind him, while Sai had a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I saw him and the girl," she pointed at Lacus, "in the factory district during the attack. While fleeing, they came across a prototype Orb mobile suit and he successfully used it to drive off the Aegis, which was captured by a ZAFT soldier." There were gasps from the crew at this.

"Fought off the Aegis?" asked Natarle, incredulous. "That kid actually did it?"

"Yes," said Murrue. "With the Orb unit out of power, we decided to utilize the Striker Packs to recharge the Strike and make contact, and he was in the cockpit at the time the CGUE showed up."

"I see," said Mu, looking back at Murrue. "I came here as an escort for the officers who have been specially trained to pilot the G-weapons. Where can I find them?"

"The bombs detonated near the control booth," said Natarle, "where the captain was welcoming them at that very moment. So they were also…"

"Yes, I see," said Mu. He then started walking up to Kira, the others following behind.

"What? What's the matter?" asked Kira. Lacus's grip on his arm tightened.

"So tell me," said Mu kindly, "you're a Coordinator?"

There was a somewhat shocked silence following Mu's words. Kira squared his shoulders.

"Yes," he said. A few of the Earth Forces soldiers gripped their rifles a little tighter, but Sai stepped in front of Kira, glaring at the soldiers.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

Rau gathered together his remaining veteran pilots, as well as Athrun, to review the recordings made by Athrun and Miguel of the two remaining units.

"You really saved my hide by bringing this back, Athrun," said Rau as the screen displayed the sixth unit's quick maneuvering and its handling of the beam saber. "If I didn't have this as proof, I would've been a laughing stock for allowing my unit to get damaged in a battle against a mobile suit of the Earth Forces. No one would've believed it was possible."

"Sir, what do you think about this machine? Do you think it's just a fluke in our Intel?" asked Athrun. Rau nodded.

"I can think of no other explanation," he said. "Now, onto more immediate matters, I believe all of you are aware of the incomplete status of the original OS on these machines. With that in mind, I have no idea why this lone unit maneuvered so well, or why the other was able to fire such a weapon so accurately. But I want to make one thing perfectly clear: we cannot afford to turn a blind eye and allow them to have possession of them. If we cannot capture them, we shall destroy them, along with that new warship. Don't underestimate it."

"Sir!" said the four pilots, saluting in near unison.

"Miguel, Olor, Matthew, prepare to launch at once," said Frederik Ades, the captain of the _Vesalius_. "We've been authorized to use weapons configuration D. And this time, let's see you put an end to all this."

"Yes sir!" declared the three as they left. Athrun bit his bottom lip, somewhat uncertainly. He wanted to request permission to go. He wanted to make up for his failure earlier against the unknown.

"Captain Ades, please allow me to sortie as well," said Athrun, drawing the attention of Ades and Rau.

"You have no mobile suit," said Rau. "Besides, you've already accomplished an extremely important mission by capturing one of those units."

Athrun was silent for a moment. No, he wouldn't turn this into a personal vendetta, and he knew that's what he was on the verge of doing. This fight, the war, ZAFT, and the PLANTs… they were all far more important than that.

"Understood, sir."

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Could you please put those weapons away?" said Sai politely, but there was steel in his voice, a glare on his face that sent shivers down the spines of the soldiers looking at him, and his entire posture screamed that he would do horrible things if they're trigger fingers so much as twitched.

"Sai…" said Kira quietly.

"Settle down men," ordered Murrue, stepping towards the soldiers. They did so, somewhat reluctantly.

"Lieutenant, I request an explanation," said Natarle quietly.

"If you think about it, it's no great mystery," said Murrue with a slight smile. "After all, the Heliopolis colony is controlled by a neutral nation. It would make sense to find some Coordinators who decided to take refuge here in order to avoid any involvement in the war." Murrue turned back to face Kira. "Am I wrong, Kira?"

"No, you're right," said Kira, "especially since I'm a first generation Coordinator."

"First generation?" one of the survivors questioned Murdoch.

"Which means, of course," said Mu, mostly for his comrades' benefits, "that your parents are Naturals." Mu turned away, rubbing the back of his neck, and glanced at Murrue. "Well, I apologize. Didn't intend to cause such a fuss. I was only curious, that's all. Nothing more than that." Somehow, it was odd to see Mu acting almost nervous.

"Lieutenant La Flaga…?" said Murrue. Mu glanced up at the Strike.

"As we made our way here," said Mu, "I watched the guys who were supposed to pilot this thing run through a bunch of simulations. They really had to struggle, just to get it to move." Mu turned back to Kira. "That's why I was so certain." He looked away, shaking his head. "Man oh man…"

With that, Mu started to walk into the hangar.

"So then, what do we do now?" asked Natarle.

"What do we do?" asked Mu, stopping and looking back. "I've just been shot down, and the Le Creuset Team is waiting for us outside the colony. He's definitely a persistent fellow. If you ask me, I don't think we can afford to spend too much time here."

Murrue sighed before turning to look at Kira.

"If you don't mind Kira, could you bring the Orb mobile suit aboard?" she asked. "Under the circumstances, we might as well have it ready for combat."

"Yeah… yeah, sure," said Kira, turning and walking out of the hangar with Lacus trailing after him.

* * *

ZAFT _Laurasia_-class Frigate _Gamow_

Dearka, Nicol, and Yzak watched as the lone remaining GINN of the _Gamow _stepped forward to arm itself with heavy assault missiles.

"D equipment I hear," said Dearka.

"I take it Commander Le Creuset is planning to storm a fortress or something?" commented Yzak.

"What do you think is gonna happen to Heliopolis?" asked Nicol.

"Can't be helped now, can it?" said Dearka.

"Yeah, it serves them right, and they call themselves a neutral state," said Yzak. Nicol frowned slightly as he glanced back out the window to the hangar.

"And how many innocent civilians who only wanted to remain out of the war will die for this?" asked Nicol softly. "Civilians… who won't even be capable of fighting back."

_That_ brought Yzak up short. Certainly, if the ZAFT pilots took down the targets properly, it wouldn't be a problem. But the mobile suit had even managed to blow off an arm of the commander's machine.

Almost unconsciously, Yzak clenched his fist. He had no problems with the idea of blowing up Earth Forces ships, blasting bases and mobile armors to pieces.

But he _hated_ stuff like what Nicol had just described. That wasn't war. That was slaughter, _murder_—regardless of whether or not it would ever match the Bloody Valentine, Yzak had always believed that they should hold themselves to higher standards than that.

"Then let us hope that none of them gets caught up in it," he said.

* * *

Heliopolis

Even though she'd told Kira earlier that it was the Le Creuset Team, she'd hoped deep down that it was not. Lacus hadn't told Kira something she knew about that team… something that he shouldn't be burdened with.

He shouldn't have to know that _Athrun_, his childhood friend, Lacus's fiancé (though she really hadn't wanted the engagement, she'd just taken it as a sacrifice years back), was a member of the Le Creuset Team… and more than likely, was one of the thieves that took the other four machines they'd heard about.

They stopped in front of the Sakura, Kira looking up at it. He sighed slightly.

"Well, let's get going Lacus," he said. "At this point… we might as well pick up the remaining equipment for this thing too."

* * *

The _Archangel_

Mu sighed slightly, looking out the front viewport at the activity as the remaining crew grabbed what supplies they could from Morgenroete, including additional Striker packs, and he saw Kira moving that Orb mobile suit over to the factory district. He frowned slightly, wondering what was up, but brushed it off, turning to face Murrue, who was sitting in the captain's chair, holding the phone attached to the arm rest.

Murrue sighed, putting the phone down.

"The colony interior is almost one hundred percent evacuated," she said, "but I'm told the incident that just happened has upped the hazard level to nine." Murrue stood up and walked over to them.

"And that means the shelters have been locked down completely," said Mu with another sigh. He looked at Murrue. "Huh… so then, uh, what are we gonna do with those kids?" Murrue stopped right in front of him. "It's too late to find a shelter to toss them into, isn't it?"

"Lieutenant Ramius detained those children because they'd been exposed to military secrets," said Natarle, clearly objecting, though her voice seemed to agree that Mu was right. She, of course, didn't know that Murrue had never detained them at all, merely temporarily recruited them because they couldn't find a shelter. "We can't exactly let them go free."

"So you're proposing to have them join us in our escape?" questioned Mu, sounding somewhat incredulous. "Once outside, we'll be involved in some pretty heavy fighting." Natarle seemed to freeze at that.

"I'm thinking that we'll have to rely on the power of the Strike," said Murrue.

"So you mean to send it into battle?" questioned Natarle. "What about the Orb machine?"

"What do you think our chances of escaping are without the Strike?" asked Murrue. "As for the Orb mobile suit, I guess that's up to Kira."

They were silent for a minute.

"I guess we'll be relying on that machine then," said Mu, drawing their attention. "Do you think the kid is gonna be okay with that?"

"What do you mean?" questioned Natarle. "Why don't you pilot the Strike? If possible, it would be better to keep the civilians uninvolved in the fighting itself."

"What are you crazy?" asked Mu, definitely incredulous this time. "Listen, there's no way _I_ can operate that thing; either of them really." Natarle looked confused. "Have you gone down and taken a look at what that kid did to the OS on that machine? I couldn't make heads or tails of it! A regular human being couldn't possibly grasp it anymore."

"Then make him change the Strike's back to the…" started Natarle before falling short, remembering that the OS was incomplete. "In any case, this is supposed to be _our_ battle; even if we keep those kids detained, it seems inappropriate to then force them to fight for us."

"So we should go out and make ourselves a nice target with them not able to do a thing?"

"No, of course not!" said Natarle. "But still… perhaps we should ask him to try and piece together an OS to let you pilot the Strike?"

"A nice thought, but I doubt he could manage it in the time available," said Mu. "I know enough about programming to know that it's easy enough to design a system for your own use—tailoring it to another person, especially for something like this, would take days at least. We don't have that kind of time."

"So, our survival hinges on Kira and 'his' mobile suit," said Murrue, staring out the window; she could see the machine returning with a shield and rifle, and it seemed to be holding something on the shield. She let out a sigh. "I hate to do this, but… I'll ask him." With that, she turned and left the bridge.

* * *

It didn't take Murrue long to reach the hangar, arriving just after Kira and Lacus had exited the Orb machine, their friends already quickly gathering around them, seeming almost protective. Murrue now had a clear view of the items carried in the shield, but couldn't tell what they were, though some of them looked like ammo boxes to her.

"Kira!" called Murrue, drawing everyone's attention as she rushed over to him.

"Miss Ramius," said Kira.

"Listen Kira," said Murrue when she reached them, "I don't know how much time we have, so I'm going to be a little blunt: our situation is grave; the shelters are locked down, so we can't put you and your friends in one. On top of that, the colony itself is in danger, so the only safe place for you and your friends is aboard the _Archangel_."

"And ZAFT is targeting the ship," said Kira. He looked at the Sakura before his hand clenched into a fist. "You want me to pilot again, don't you?"

"I'm afraid so," said Murrue. "I'm sorry Kira, but we don't have any choice but to ask this of you."

Kira closed his eyes, hand clenching and unclenching. The shelters were locked down, and the colony itself wasn't safe with that hole he'd stupidly blasted in it, so they were all well and truly stuck with the _Archangel_ for the foreseeable future.

"Alright," he said at last, opening his eyes. "Our situation can't be helped, so we need to work together I guess. Besides, I can't just let you walk to your deaths, even if… even if it is because of you that ZAFT is here in the first place."

"I'm grateful," said Murrue with a slight bow. "And once again, I'm sorry it came to this. It was never our intent, but… well, you know what they say about the road to hell."

"Yeah…"

Murrue straightened up.

"Due to the present circumstances, we'll allow you access to the Strike," said Murrue. "You can use it or the Orb mobile suit at your own discretion."

"Its codename is apparently Astray White Frame, but it's been nicknamed the Sakura," said Kira. Murrue blinked in surprise; cherry blossom seemed odd for a war machine, even as a nickname. However, the expression worn by Kira's friends suggested they thought it appropriate.

Of course, Murrue didn't know about the symbolism behind the flower in Japanese and Orb culture as a metaphor for the transient nature of life.

"If Kira's going to be out there, then please allow me to pilot as well," said Lacus suddenly, shocking _everyone_. "I'm a Coordinator as well. If we put a proper OS in, I can handle it."

"Lacus…"

"I won't let you fight alone Kira," said Lacus firmly. She looked back to Murrue. "There isn't any harm in it, right? Trust me, I can be of help."

Murrue seemed to be considering it. Then, she nodded.

"Okay, I'll allow it," she said. "How long will it take to put together an OS?"

"The OS I built for both machines is identical," said Kira quickly, brushing some hair out of his eyes. "It shouldn't be too hard to modify one of them for Lacus to use, but it might take a little while."

"It will take some time to resupply the machines anyway," said Murrue. She sighed. "Thank you; please get started as soon as possible. The rest of you, please follow me, I'll show you to the mess hall. You can rest there for the time being." She looked around. "Officer Murdoch! Kira and Lacus will be piloting both mobile suits; continue with the resupply, but please, don't get in their way!"

"Sure thing!" Murdoch called back distractedly. Shaking her head again, Murrue led Kira's friends out of the hangar, while Kira and Lacus made their way to the Strike's cockpit at her request.

"Lacus, are you really sure about this?" asked Kira softly when he was certain they wouldn't be overheard—namely, when they were both squeezed into the cockpit and trying to examine how to modify the Strike for her use. "It's one thing for me to fight, but you're from the PLANTs."

"I know… but it'll be fine," said Lacus. "I want to protect you too… and all of them as well."

"Lacus…"

"Besides, I can probably do better than you can in battle."

"Huh?"

"I never told you, did I? I got a little training from Lily."

"Oh… after you guys reconciled?"

"Yeah…"

* * *

Murrue let out a small sigh as she returned to the _Archangel_'s bridge.

"Did you manage to convince him?" asked Mu, looking up from where he was sitting.

"Yes," said Murrue. "Lacus volunteered to pilot one of the machines as well; it seems she's also a Coordinator."

"The pink princess?" questioned Mu. "I'm not surprised that she's a Coordinator; that pink hair didn't look like any dye job I've ever seen, so it had to be natural, not like on that kid with the blue hair."

"Lieutenant Ramius, are you really sure about that?" questioned Natarle.

"Under the circumstances, I didn't think there was any harm," said Murrue. "Kira himself said that, with our present circumstances, it's best for us to work together to survive."

"That's good to hear," said Mu. "Say, did he tell you the name of that Orb machine?"

"He said its codename was Astray White Frame, but its nickname is Sakura," said Murrue. Mu quirked an eyebrow at that while Natarle barely suppressed a snort.

"Sakura huh…" murmured Mu. "Yeah, oddly appropriate for a sixty foot death machine…"

* * *

"What do you guys think of all this?" asked Tolle, glancing around at the others. Sai shrugged slightly while Mir seemed to chew on her bottom lip a little. It was Kuzzey who ultimately answered.

"We always knew that Kira and Lacus were Coordinators," he said. "Before today though, how many of us really thought about it that much? I mean, none of us even know Lacus. To us, she's just a friend of Kira's." Sai shifted imperceptibly at this. "As for Kira, sure, we always knew that he was more… 'advanced' then the rest of us, but Sai is just as accomplished in schooling, so we never thought about it. But you heard what they all said—Kira managed to reprogram that mobile suit's OS in the middle of that fight with the red mobile suit, _and_ he then nearly bull's-eyed that silver mobile suit, even though the guys he's fighting have actual combat training and are Coordinators themselves. He's our friend, but at the same time, can we really look at him the same after witnessing that?"

"I see where you're coming from Kuzzey," said Sai. He pushed up his glasses a little. "But there's something you're missing in there: Kira built the original OS."

"Huh?"

"That's right," said Mir. "When we were on our way to the college earlier, we asked him about what Professor Kato had him working on and he said he thought it was some kind of new operating system." Sai nodded.

"Exactly," he said. "I did a little work on it too, but Kira was the main contributor, and it seems likely that this is where the work was going. The OS is incomplete, just like Professor Kato's work project. Given the likelihood of that, Kira was probably already pretty familiar with the OS, meaning it wouldn't take as much for him to get it to a state where it could work well for himself… while the ZAFT pilots wouldn't have been so capable. Not only that, but the machines are protected by that Phase Shift armor system, so ZAFT's weapons were worthless."

"So they'd be intimidated to just walk away more easily," said Tolle. He nodded. "Thanks for that… it's reassuring, in a weird way."

* * *

A short while later, not long after the resupply on the mobile suits was done, Petty Officer 2nd Class Romero Pal, manning the fire control station, watched as his screen blurred out.

"Electrical interference throughout the whole colony," he announced. "N-jammer levels rising."

"What was that?" questioned Murrue, turning her chair slightly to face Pal.

"Well, appears he doesn't intend to wait until we head out, that bastard," said Mu, standing up.

"Do they plan to hit us again while we're inside the colony?" asked Natarle.

"For them, it's easy," said Mu with a sarcastic smile. "They can fire all they want, but we can't shoot back. Nice."

"Order all hands to battle stations," said Murrue grimly. "Have Kira and Lacus prepare for takeoff. Ensign Badgiruel, please equip the Strike with the Sword Striker pack. Lieutenant La Flaga, since your mobile armor isn't ready for launch, please man the CIC."

* * *

Down in the hangar, Kira and Lacus moved their respective machines onto the catapults.

"_Hey kids, listen,_" said Murdoch, appearing on their screens, "_I just want you to know that being a Natural or a Coordinator makes no difference to me beyond assuring me that you can do fine. So good luck… get out there and give 'em hell._"

"Thanks Mr. Murdoch," said Kira.

"_Alright you numbskulls, open the number three container and attach the Sword Striker! Let's not take any chances of causing the kids to damage their own home colony!_"

Kira smiled slightly on hearing that, looking at Lacus's face in one of the display screens.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"_Yeah… even with 'that', this is still a whole different experience,_" she said. "_Kira… promise me you'll be alright?_" Kira looked at her confused.

"I promise," he said.

"_And…_" Lacus trailed off for a second, "_promise me… that you won't hesitate… no matter what happens._"

"Huh?" was Kira's intelligent reply. He shook his head. "Alright, I promise Lacus."

Lacus was quiet for a moment. "_Thank you Kira._"

Seconds later, the two mobile suits simultaneously turned from dull gray to brilliant white, black, red, and blue as their Phase Shift armor activated.

* * *

"One heat source approaching," announced Natarle. "Matching thermal pattern… heat source confirmed to be a GINN." The GINN in question suddenly came up on the screen, heavy missiles attached to each arm.

"What are they thinking?!" cried Mu. "It's equipped with heavy artillery used for taking out bases!" Mu looked over his shoulder at Natarle sitting at the station behind him. "Are they planning on using that here?!"

Elsewhere, an explosion rocked Heliopolis and a massive hole was blown in the colony wall, allowing a pair of GINNs entry to the colony through it.

"Separate group approaching from the Tannenbaun district," called Natarle.

"Send out the Strike and White Frame," ordered Murrue. The two mobile suits catapulted away from the ship only seconds later. "Link laser designator to main cannon and aim for the GINN directly ahead of us. Prepare Korinthos missiles."

As the Gottfried cannons fired, the trio of GINNs broke away from each other completely and went on the attack from three different angles.

* * *

Kira and Lacus flew apart immediately, Lacus flying to assist the _Archangel_ against the missile wielding GINNs attacking it, and Kira heading straight for the third GINN, the one carrying the large rifle cannon.

As the GINN fired a blast at him, Kira instinctively dodged… and watched in horror as the energy blast disintegrated one of the shaft cables holding the entire colony together. Quickly checking the Sakura's databanks, he identified the weapon as the Barrus, a heavy ion cannon, and perhaps the strongest weapon in the GINNs arsenal.

"Damn it, why the hell would you knowingly use weapons like that inside a colony?!" he shouted as he drew one the Sakura's beam sabers and charged at the GINN, swinging as quickly as he could. The GINN dodged, but it was close, and fired the Barrus again. Kira dodged a second time, and the ion cannon blast destroyed a building on the ground. Kira's eyes narrowed and when the next shot came his way, instead of dodging he raised the Sakura's shield to block, using the explosion to mask his next attack.

* * *

One GINN fired off the missiles from its leg-mounted launchers while its companion dodged a slash by the Schwert Gewehr. The _Archangel_'s Igelstellungs opened fire, but the system setup was incomplete, and they couldn't properly lock onto the missiles.

Left with no other choice, the _Archangel_ maneuvered to the right, out of the path of the missiles. With the heavy interference of the N-jammers, the missiles own targeting systems were somewhat scrambled, and they were unable to tell the difference between the warship and the ground below it, crashing into the internal surface of Heliopolis.

"Just stop it!" cried Lacus, closing in and slashing at the GINN in her way. It dodged, twisting to bring all four of its anti-fortress heavy missiles to bear on the Strike, but what little pilot training Lacus had came from someone with a love for melee combat.

Sure, it was usually with a smaller, more graceful weapon than the Schwert Gewehr… but that didn't mean Lacus couldn't throw the Strike into a quick spin and bring the anti-ship sword around to cleave the GINN in half at the waist. The two halves tumbled, and the pilot pulled the trigger for the missiles instinctively just before the top half exploded with him inside, but they had no target, and went flying for the largest object they could find: the central shaft.

Lacus twisted to fire the Strike's Igelstellungs on the missiles. She managed to gun down two, but the other two detonated against the central shaft. A loud creaking resounded through the colony as the shaft threatened to snap like a band stretched to its limits. Lacus held back a cry of despair, instead turning her attention to the remaining GINN.

* * *

In one of the shelters, the civilians looked around as the area shook around them.

"Has another battle started up?" one of them asked. The shelter lights suddenly turned red.

"_Hazard level has now been increased to ten,_" came a mechanical voice over the speakers. "_This shelter may be ejected as a lifeboat. All persons are to fasten their seatbelts._"

Glancing around briefly, a blonde-haired, topaz-eyed girl bit her lip nervously, worried about the two who had helped her and pushed her into the shelter.

* * *

Kira slashed at the offending GINN for who-knows what number of times now, and was getting increasingly irritated by its last second evasion.

Though the GINN pilot was probably just as irritated with Kira, who frequently dodged even point blank shots; the prototype weapons Kira had mentally tagged as "Gundams" were incredibly agile in general, but the White Frame's entire backpack was basically a giant thruster array built for tremendous agility, on top of the machine's increased number of maneuvering thrusters over the Strike.

Kira's attention was drawn briefly to the destruction of the GINN and, more pointedly, the damage to the central shaft. Horrified by the damage, Kira felt his gut clench. One more hit and Heliopolis would…

The GINN Kira was fighting tried to take advantage of the momentary distraction, firing a shot from the Barrus that should've caught Kira totally unawares.

While it did do just that, something strange happened. Some gut instinct told Kira to dodge, told him that he would be dead if he didn't.

And if he died, though Lacus would still be there to protect his other friends, who would be there to protect her?

Driving the Sakura upwards, Kira extended the right wrist, pointing his machine's fist at the GINN. A section of armor on the forearm popped open to reveal a three-barrel gatling gun, and Kira immediately opened fire.

The new weapon had caught the GINN pilot off-guard, and he'd probably thought Kira was armed with only melee weapons. To his misfortune, he'd been caught flat-footed, and the ninety millimeter armor-piercing rounds quickly shredded the GINN's armor and pierced its powerplant and fuel, sending mobile suit and cannon up in a final, fiery ball of death.

Kira's first kill didn't quite catch up to him just yet—his first thought was to light up all his thrusters and push himself to help Lacus and the _Archangel_ deal with the final GINN.

But just as he did so, the GINN in question threw itself back to evade a slash by Lacus, only to be partially vaporized by a blast from the _Archangel_'s Gottfried cannons. To the horror of all of them though, it was a little too close to the central shaft when they did so, the peripheral explosion hitting the fragile shaft and weakening it further.

It was too much—the colony's rotation put an intense strain on the shaft, and now, weakened as it was, it just couldn't hold up. Inertia tugged at the shaft, and parts of it began to break off, the shaft fragmenting to pieces before their horrified eyes, leaving them unable to do anything as Heliopolis literally fell to pieces around them.

* * *

**Author's Notes: As I said, at this point, it's still kind of a mess. At any rate, Heliopolis is done and we're about halfway through the dull parts of the story. Hope you enjoyed the small changes.  
**

**Personally, my favorite part was when I had Sai stand up to the soldiers for Kira.**

**This time around, I also give a bit more justification for Lacus's ability to pilot. More details will come to light as the story goes on, but for now, it's just an excuse to justify Lacus pulling through "thrown in the cockpit" with relative ease.**

**Now, you may all have noticed something else: two of the _Archangel_ bridge crewmen are missing. No, it wasn't a mistake on my part, so don't waste your breath or reviews asking.**

**And speaking of... please review. The overwhelmingly positive response to the first chapter has told me that yes, this was the right thing to do. Now, I want to be sure that it continues to be the right thing, and if its wrong, then I want to know so I can repair it. Furthermore, speak up if there's anything in this chapter you'd like to see expanded a little****—**like I said, I intend to go through and retune these early chapters at some point, so who knows? Maybe I'll be able to expand on something you'd like more of (Yzak's attitude about Heliopolis, the thoughts of the ZAFT pilots, etc.), and I'm sure there's a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes from the original still in there, so let me know.

**See you all next week, and wish me luck at the Theros Release tonight!  
**

* * *

**Gundam Astray White Frame "Sakura":**  
Description:  
During its joint G-weapon Development Project with the Atlantic Federation, Morgenroete Inc. secretly began development of a second prototype series for Orb, the Astray Series. The first of these machines was the Astray White Frame, laying the philosophy and groundwork for the designs to come. The White Frame surpasses the Atlantic Federation prototypes in speed, endurance, toughness, mobility and reliability, with only the Aile Strike Gundam capable of even coming close to matching it in these areas. The White Frame's primary weapon is a powerful beam rifle powered by replaceable energy packs, greatly extending its use and reducing power consumption for the White Frame itself. For close-quarters combat, the White Frame is armed with two high-power beam sabers and each forearm conceals a rotary cannon capable of shredding a ZAFT GINN in seconds. This incredibly powerful machine, nicknamed "Sakura", is stolen by civilian engineer Kira Yamato as a means of escaping the burning Heliopolis Factory District with his childhood friend, Lacus Clyne, and he subsequently begins to pilot it for the Earth Alliance warship _Archangel_.

**Model Number:** MBF-P00  
**Code Name:** Astray White Frame  
**Unit Type:** Prototype General-Purpose Mobile Suit  
**Manufacturer:** Morgenroete Inc.  
**Operators:** Earth Alliance (Atlantic Federation), Orb Union  
**First Deployment:** 25 January, Cosmic Era 71  
**Accommodation:** Pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso  
**Dimensions:** Overall height 17.91 meters  
**Weight:** Max gross weight 83.64 metric tons  
**Power Plant:** 2 Ultracompact Energy Batteries  
**Equipment and Design Features:** Sensors, range unknown; Phase Shift (PS) Armor; Astray Flight System;  
**Fixed Armament:** 2x Type 70 Beam Saber, stored on Astray Flight System, hand-carried in use; 2x Type 8 90mm Rotary Cannon, mounted in forearms; 2x "Igelstellung" 75mm Multi-Barrel CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in head; Shield, mounted on left arm;  
**Optional Hand Armament:** 67mm High-Energy Beam Rifle, powered by replaceable energy pack with power for sixteen shots  
**Pilot:** Kira Yamato  
**Appearance:** Looks like the Gundam Astray Gold Frame, but with an Aile Striker on the back, thicker forearm armor and sections on the hip armor for holding additional rifle energy packs.  
**Color:** White V-crest, limbs, backpack, hips, head and lower torso, a black upper torso and headcrest, and grey joints. The shield is the same color/style as the M1 in canon. For those interested, the eyes are yellow, and the beams of its default weapons are white.  
**Notes:** So, you wanted the specs for the Sakura—here they are. I went through several iterations, including a design without PS armor in keeping with the original Astray canon designs, but since I disliked the Astray manga and thought that whole bit was kind of stupid, I went ahead and added PS armor back into the design. Other than that, I gave it an "improved" Aile Striker, a new beam rifle and gatling guns in the forearms, because I really, _really_ liked that aspect of NT1 "Alex." As for the nickname, I was looking up white Japanese flowers when cherry blossoms came up. A bit of research confirmed that cherry blossoms are usually white, and are a major symbol of life and death. After thinking about it a little, I decided I liked it, a lot. So, here you have it, hope you like it.


	3. Silent Run

**Well, this week has run the gamut from enjoyable to irritating, sometimes in a single day. Oi.**

**Anyways, I think that this chapter is an improvement over the last two, with a bit more shift here and there and more cleanup done than on the previous chapters. Still not perfect; like I said, it's not until post-Artemis that things really shift about and start to improve, though to be fair, the Artemis content has been improved a fair bit as well.**

**I won't bore you all up here though. Onwards!**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Three: Silent Run

January 25th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

Heliopolis Debris Field

"_X105 Strike, White Frame, please respond,_" said Natarle over the radio. "_Strike, White Frame, can you hear me? Please respond._"

Kira and Lacus, now beside one another in space, ignored the calls, looking out from the cockpits at the ruins of the colony.

"Heliopolis… is gone… why?" asked Kira, his hands shaking on the controls. Lacus was much the same.

* * *

Aboard the _Archangel_, red lights flashed throughout the ship; in the mess hall, the Heliopolis students stared at the view screen in shock, looking at the ruins of their home.

"I can't believe… it was so fragile," said Mu softly, looking out the viewport on the bridge.

Murrue clenched a fist before turning to look down at Natarle, trying to contact Kira and Lacus.

"X105 Strike, White Frame," she said. "Lacus Hirano! Kira Yamato! If you hear me, if you're okay, respond!"

"_White Frame, Kira here,_" came Kira's voice over the radio.

"_X105 Strike, Lacus here,_" came Lacus's voice an instant later. Natarle sighed in relief.

"You alright?" she asked.

"_Yes, we seem to be fine,_" said Lacus.

"Do you have our position?" asked Natarle.

"_Yes,_" said Kira, sounding strained.

"Then return," said Natarle. "You're able to, right?"

* * *

"Yes," said Kira, as the radio shut off. He looked out at the ruins.

_Mom, dad, you're safe, right?_

Kira closed his eyes.

"_Kira, you okay?_" asked Lacus, somehow sensing Kira's apprehension.

"Not really," he said. "But I will be. Let's get back." As the two were about to leave, an alarm started beeping in both cockpits.

"What?" whispered Kira, as he brought up a zoom image on a blinking red light in the distance.

"_Kira,_" said Lacus, "_isn't that…?_"

"Yeah," said Kira, "a Heliopolis lifeboat." Kira and Lacus put away their swords, and took off in the direction of the lifeboat.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"So, what do you plan to do now?" asked Mu.

"Our ship is still in a combat situation," said Murrue, looking over her shoulder at Pal. "Have you detected the ZAFT vessels?"

"It's impossible," he said with a slight shake of his head. "All that debris is throwing out a tremendous amount of heat and presenting a solid mass to interfere with other forms of detection."

"They'll have the same problem," said Mu, still looking at Murrue. "Do you think they'll continue coming after us?"

"Don't you?" she retorted. "Regardless, I think we should move based on that assumption, but if the enemy tries to attack us right now, we're finished."

"Right," said Mu. "All we've got are those two mobile suits with inexperienced civilian volunteer pilots, my badly damaged Zero and a warship that is severely understaffed. It's no condition to be putting up a fight in."

"The _Archangel_'s firepower is tremendous," said Murrue, "but not only are we short-handed, but of those of us left, only Ensign Badgiruel and myself were trained for bridge operations—and then only as mobile suit controllers. It would be different if we had another four bridge crewmen fully capable of handling the tasks, but we don't."

Mu looked around. The only people they could offer for bridge operations were Murrue, Natarle, Arnold Neumann handling the piloting, and Pal currently sitting fire control and running the enemy search & detection with it. Optimally, the bridge should've had at least six more people staffing it, but of the eleven surviving Earth Forces soldiers (counting Mu), half a dozen of them were mechanics too busy making sure the ship didn't fall apart to do anything to help out on the bridge.

"Maybe we should punch up to full speed, try to outrun them?" said Mu. "I'm told this is supposed to be a pretty fast ship."

Murrue shook her head.

"This ship has very high acceleration and cruising speed, but it masses significantly more than the enemy's _Nazca_-class and has fewer engines for acceleration," she said. "We do have mobility and firepower on it, but…"

"But an inexperienced crew," finished Mu, looking over at Arnold. "Think you can maneuver this bulky thing around a _Nazca_?"

"Well sure, if I had a few weeks to practice," said Arnold. "Sorry Lieutenant, but I can't do anything more than that. What about you?"

"You're joking right? Instinct would have me trying to fly it like my Zero in a second, and if a fight breaks out, I'll need to be out there."

Mu turned back to Murrue.

"Well, I suppose we _could_ always surrender," he said, catching the others off-guard, though Natarle remained focused down in the CIC. "That's always an option you know."

Murrue's response was cutoff by Natarle's voice.

"What was that?" demanded the ensign. "Are you two out of your minds?! If you bring them aboard, you're putting them right in the middle of a dangerous combat situation!"

"What's the situation Ensign?" questioned Murrue. Natarle turned to her while listening to Kira and Lacus's retort. As she did so, her eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"Understood, please standby," she said over the radio before focusing on Murrue. "The Strike and White Frame have returned with a Heliopolis lifeboat and want to bring it aboard; it seems that it's suffered some kind of damage or malfunction, and its beacon and thrusters aren't working properly."

"That means there's no way they'll be found before they're all dead," said Mu, looking at Murrue.

"Tell them to go ahead and bring it aboard," she said. "We can't leave them stranded out here."

"Understood," said Natarle, switching the communications back on. "You have permission to bring them aboard."

"_Thank you,_" came Lacus's voice. Natarle opened the catapults for them.

Above the CIC, Murrue returned to the original subject.

"I know we're in a critical situation," she said, "but I have no intention of surrendering." Mu, who had sat down in the navigator/co-pilot seat, turned to look at her curiously. "I refuse to hand over either this ship or the Strike to ZAFT. We must get them safely to Atlantic Federation HQ, no matter what the risks are."

"Captain," said Natarle, coming out of the CIC after the Strike and Sakura had entered the hangar, "I recommend we select Artemis as our destination."

"Artemis…?" questioned Murrue quietly, and somewhat doubtfully. "But that's a Eurasian military satellite."

"The one with the umbrella shield?" said Mu, turning his chair completely.

"Hm," mumbled Natarle, nodding slightly. She then turned to the primary display screen, which brought up a general map of the area. "Given our present location, it is the most easily accessible allied outpost."

"Both the G-weapons and this ship lack a recognition code acknowledged by our allies, right?" said Murrue. "The question remains: would Eurasia…?"

"I'm certainly aware," said Natarle, interrupting Murrue, "of the fact that the _Archangel_ and the Strike are both considered to be sensitive military secrets of the Atlantic Federation, and we can probably safely assume the same of the White Frame for Orb. However, should we set a course to the moon, you can't expect us to arrive there without encountering at least some resistance along the way. In addition, we left in a hurry and we weren't sufficiently supplied, which means were urgently in need of provisions, all the more so if we're to be carrying additional Orb refugees."

"I realize that," said Murrue.

"I have to say that even Eurasia will be sympathetic to our situation," said Natarle. "As it stands, the most practical course of action would be to avoid confrontation as much as possible, and resupply at Artemis, where we could also attempt to contact Lunar Headquarters."

"Artemis, then?" asked Mu. "I wonder if everything will go exactly as planned."

"Hard to say," said Murrue, "but it does seem to be our only viable option right now."

* * *

In the hangar, Kira and Lacus both opened the hatches for their mobile suits and stepped out of them, as _Archangel_ crewmen assisted the Heliopolis refugees out of the lifeboat. They emerged just as a familiar redhead girl in a pink dress emerged from the lifeboat.

"Huh?" murmured Kira, recognizing Flay immediately.

Tori suddenly flew out of Kira's shirt and down towards Flay, chirping "Birdee!" as it did so, catching her attention, while Kira had accidentally sent himself tumbling her way in his attempt to catch the robotic pet.

"Oh, I know you, you're one of Sai's friends, right?" said Flay excitedly as she launched herself at Kira.

"Uh, Flay," said Kira, as the redhead ran into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and sending him floating back. Over by the Strike, Lacus frowned slightly and failed to notice as Haro slipped out of a pocket of her dress. "So it's really you Flay? That's… a strange coincidence." Lacus pushed off from the Strike towards them.

"Please," said Flay, not really paying attention to Kira's words, "tell me what happened to Heliopolis. What was going on? What happened there in the end?"

"Uh…" said Kira, uncertain how to respond.

"I was with… my friends and I were…" said Flay, stumbling over her words some, "I lost Jessica and Misha in a store and ran alone to a shelter. And then everything…"

Lacus reached them and was about to say something when she was interrupted.

"Haro! Haro! I won't accept that!" shouted Haro. Flay flinched as Haro made its opinion of Flay's presence known, while the redhead herself finally seemed to take notice of Lacus's presence.

"Haro, stop that," said Lacus admonishingly. She grabbed Haro, and turned her eyes to Flay, who shrunk back just a little. "I apologize. I thought he was turned off…"

Flay shook her head slightly, looking back to Kira and doing her best to ignore Lacus.

"This is a ZAFT ship, right?" she asked, her tone worried. "What's gonna happen to us? And what in the world are you doing on this ship anyway?"

"Actually," said Lacus, a little miffed at Flay's behavior, "this vessel belongs to the Earth Forces."

"You're lying," said Flay, finally really acknowledging Lacus. "There are mobile suits on board." Flay looked at the Strike and Sakura.

"No," said Kira, "they actually belong to the Earth Forces and Orb, one each, but as things stand, the distinction is a little moot." Flay looked at Kira, surprised.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay, at least," he continued, shaking his head. "Hey, guess what? Sai and Miriallia are here too. I know you're gonna be just fine."

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Who could have anticipated this?" muttered Ades. "What will you do now? The Council won't overlook the annihilation of a neutral nation's colony."

"How can a colony that was building new weaponry for the Earth Forces be considered neutral?" said Rau.

"But Commander…" started Ades.

"Most of the residents had enough time to escape," said Rau, "so it really isn't an issue." Rau turned to face Ades. "Especially in light of the Bloody Valentine Tragedy."

Those words silenced Ades. The Bloody Valentine was the greatest tragedy since the Reconstruction War that led to the Cosmic Era as far as most in ZAFT were concerned… though there were exceptions.

"Have you been able to locate the Earth Forces new battleship?" asked Rau.

"Not under these conditions," said the sensor officer.

"You still intend to pursue them?" questioned Ades. "But how can we when we've lost nearly all our mobile suits? All we've got is your damaged CGUE and a GINN with no pilot."

"What do you mean?" asked Rau with a smile. "We have the four machines we acquired from the Earth Forces and four cadet pilots."

"Are you suggesting we use those?" asked Ades. "But…"

"Now that we're finished with the data extraction, I don't see why we can't use them," said Rau, moving over to the tactical display screen behind the captain's chair. "And besides, the repairs on my CGUE are going well. If we're lucky, it will even be ready in time for the next battle." Rau smiled in anticipation of another showdown with La Flaga, or perhaps the pilot of that mobile suit with the cannon. "Bring up a map of the area and send a message to the _Gamow_ to expand its search radius.

* * *

The _Archangel_

The mess hall doors opened as Kira arrived with Lacus and Flay, drawing the eyes of Kira's friends. Flay smiled and ran up to Sai, wrapping her arms around his neck. Sai smiled, somewhat embarrassed, but also looking just a little pleased.

On the bridge, things were different, though.

"Prepare decoy," ordered Murrue. "As soon as the decoy has cleared the ship, we'll start the main engines and lay in a course directly to Artemis. We will then switch to inertial flight in order to avoid enemy detection. Now, level two battlestations. Reposition the ship as quickly as possible."

"A silent run until we reach the Artemis base," commented Mu. "It should take us about two hours; now, it's up to luck."

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Perhaps they hid amidst the debris of Heliopolis and left this area undetected," suggested Ades.

"No, we can rule that out," said Rau. "They're probably sitting very still somewhere." Rau looked down at the display table. "A net… why not?"

"A net?" asked Ades. "What do you mean by that?"

Rau pressed a button, causing the markers on the display map to move.

"The _Vesalius_ will launch first and wait here for the enemy ship," he said, pointing at his intended destination. "The _Gamow _will follow them along the orbital course while avoiding detection."

"Artemis…" said Ades. "Are you sure? But wouldn't it be more logical for them to head for the moon?"

"Large heat source detected," announced the sensor officer, drawing both Rau's and Ades's gazes. "Projected route: vessel will circle around the Earth and head to the moon to Atlantic Federation HQ." Ades's eyes narrowed. Rau's may have as well, but it was impossible to tell behind his mask.

"Commander!" said Ades, turning back to Rau.

"I'm convinced that's a decoy," said Rau.

"But perhaps we should confirm with the _Gamow_!" said Ades as Rau floated towards the front of the bridge.

"No," said Rau forcefully. "They'll be heading out to Artemis. I'm more sure now than ever before. Launch the _Vesalius_! Get Zelman on the line!"

* * *

The _Archangel_

In the corridor outside the mess hall, two of the mechanics were checking the ID cards of the refugees they'd brought onboard. Kira, Lacus, and they're friends, including Flay, were seated at one of the mess hall tables after explaining a little of what was going on (as they knew it at least) to Flay, and were now idly observing as the refugees shuffled into the mess hall one-by-one. At their own table, Flay had made sure to seat herself with Sai between her and Lacus.

"Wish they'd let us know where this ship is headed," commented Kuzzey.

"They changed course, didn't they?" asked Sai, referring to the way the ship had shaken earlier. "There could still be ZAFT around."

"They're intent on getting this ship," said Tolle, "and those mobile suits too. So I betcha they're still huntin' us down."

"Huh?" said Flay, looking up. "They're still doing what? You mean were less safe now that we're onboard? Say it isn't so!"

Kira glanced at Flay before looking down, feeling slightly guilty about that. Lacus squeezed Kira's shoulder reassuringly.

"Well," said Mir, "would you rather be stuck aboard that broken lifeboat?"

"N-not exactly," said Flay, leaning against Sai to reassure herself.

"I sure hope my parents are safe," said Kuzzey after a moment, while Kira and Lacus watched a few more refugees walk into the hall.

"All districts were ordered to evacuate," said Sai. "I'm sure they're okay."

"Kira Yamato? Lacus Hirano?" came a voice, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Mu La Flaga stood in the doorway for a moment before walking inside.

"Yes?" asked Kira for both of them.

"Mr. Murdoch is pretty upset y'know," said Mu. "We don't have enough people, so… you maintain your machines, 'kay?"

"Our machines?" questioned Kira. "Wait, what do you mean 'our' machines?"

"Let's just say that's what's been decided," said Mu. "Fact is, you're the only ones capable of piloting them; it can't be helped."

"Well, sure, we drove those things, but only because we didn't have any choice," said Kira. "Look I don't want anyone saying that it makes me—and _especially_ Lacus—a soldier or anything."

Mu shook his head. "So, when the fighting starts again, and you refuse to use them, are those gonna be your last words, huh?" he asked. "At the moment, you two and I are the only ones that can protect this ship."

"But I don't…"

"Kira, you have the power to make a difference," said Mu. "Why not put it to good use? We have precious little time, including time to think it over." With that, Mu began to leave.

"Sir," said Sai suddenly, "excuse me, but where is this ship heading now?"

"To a Eurasian military base," said Mu. He shrugged slightly. "We'll be lucky if they let us in without a fuss." With that, Mu left.

"It isn't…" said Kira. He closed his eyes and ran off.

"Hey, Kira!" called Tolle. Lacus didn't hesitate, and ran off after the boy.

"Wait, what did he say?" asked Flay. She looked at Sai. "Hold on, what was that all about? So then, that Kira guy and that Lacus girl, they were in…?"

"You heard about how the lifeboat you were on was carried in by mobile suits, didn't you?" asked Sai. "My friend Kira, and his friend Lacus, were the ones piloting them."

"What?" asked Flay. "They're the ones… but why…?" She trailed off slightly, wrapping her arms around herself. "They're Coordinators… I always knew that _she_ was, but I had no idea…"

"Yes," said Sai softly. "Kira and Lacus are Coordinators, but they're _not_ with ZAFT."

"They're still two of us," added Mir, though Lacus was an infrequent visitor. "Cherished friends."

"I see…" said Flay softly, though there was the faintest hint of animosity in her voice.

* * *

Kira stood in the hangar, looking up at the Sakura, thinking on Mu's last words to him.

"I may know how to operate the mobile suit," said Kira to no one in particular, "but that doesn't mean I can fight in a battle."

"Then what will we do?" asked Lacus, coming up behind Kira. Kira looked at her.

"I know you don't want to fight, Kira," she said. "Neither do I; but there are people on this ship, caught up in all this who we need to protect. Those people from ZAFT… they chose all of this. Many of us on this ship didn't. Circumstances simply forced it." Lacus looked over at the Strike. "I truly don't want to fight the people from ZAFT… I can understand why they are fighting, and I haven't forgotten Junius Seven, either. But I know how things really are… and how many innocent lives may be lost, if this ship is destroyed?" Lacus looked down at her hand.

"Lacus…" started Kira. She gave a sad smile.

"Our innocence, Kira, is already lost," she said. "I destroyed one of those GINNs… I committed myself to this. Daddy and Lily will forgive me, but… well, until we reach Earth Forces allies who can get us safely to Orb, everyone on this ship is a soldier, and must do his or her part to help us survive; I learned the importance of that from Lily as well. And we can't simply tell the ZAFT team that I'm here… I'm already guilty of collaboration, and that would be proof of it. I helped kill two ZAFT soldiers today. My presence here would weaken my father's position, and Chairman Zala can't be allowed that kind of edge."

Kira looked down, feeling guilty, knowing that Lacus was right, and that it was because of him that she was even here. If only they'd never met…

"Even still, I will never regret knowing you, Kira Yamato," said Lacus, startling him. It was like she was reading his thoughts. "Our friendship means everything to me. You know that. And I'm glad to be doing something more than just trying to get people like Chairman Zala to see things more clearly. I want to protect people… and now, though the circumstances of it—fighting—are sad, I'm more than happy to do it." Lacus gave Kira a sad smile.

"I'm sure that Miss Murrue would be happy to just have one of us to help," she said. "But… we made a promise. 'Where you go, I will go. And where I go, I will take you with me'. Remember?"

Kira did remember. It was a promise they'd made to each other when Athrun had been recalled to the PLANTs by his father. Aside from Kira and Lacus, the only ones who knew about it were their families. Athrun's mother Lenore had known as well, but had perished in the Bloody Valentine. Kira returned Lacus's smile.

"Yeah," he said. "I remember… and I'll never forget."

* * *

Half an hour later

"Large heat source detected, indicating a warship engine," announced Pal suddenly. "Distance, two hundred, yellow thirty-three seventeen, mark zero two. Charlie, course zero shift zero."

"Beside us?" said Mu, sounding somewhere between incredulous and annoyed. "But it's heading in the same direction!"

"Are they onto us?" asked Murrue.

"They're a fair distance," said Natarle confidently.

"Object outpacing us," said Pal. "Silhouette match confirmed: it's a _Nazca_-class destroyer."

Mu gritted his teeth. "They're positioning themselves ahead of us to cut us off at the pass," he said, ignoring the inappropriateness of the term "pass" in space.

Natarle looked at Pal. "Where's their _Laurasia_-class?"

"Hold on a moment," said Pal. "There's a heat source following us. Three hundred to stern." He looked at Murrue and Natarle as they shared a concerned glance. "When'd that appear?"

"We know the _Laurasia_-class will eventually overtake us," said Mu, "but if we use our engines to outrun it, the _Nazca_-class will double back and come right at us." He was quiet for a moment. "Hey, bring me up a space map and the data on the two vessels," he said suddenly.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Natarle.

Mu turned his seat to look at her and Murrue with a smile. "Eh, I'm getting ready to think about it," he said.

* * *

Red lights flashed and alarms sounded throughout the ship.

"_Silhouette detected, enemy unit,_" came a voice over the PA. "_Silhouette detected, enemy unit. Level one battlestations. All military personnel, take your positions at once. All military personnel, take your positions at once._"

In the mess hall, Kira's friends heard the announcement, as well as the concerns of the refugees about the ship entering combat with them onboard.

"_Kira Yamato and Lacus Hirano to the hangar,_" continued the voice suddenly. "_Kira Yamato and Lacus Hirano to the hangar._"

"Kira…" said Mir softly. "I wonder what he decided." All of them already knew that if Kira refused to fight, Lacus wouldn't fight either.

"If Kira decides not to fight, our future won't be looking too good," said Sai.

"Listen Tolle," said Mir suddenly, "we're always sitting on a bench, waiting for Kira to get in the game and protect us." Tolle looked down.

"If we have the ability to make a difference," he said, quoting Mu, "why not put it to good use. Right?" He looked up at Sai and Kuzzey, who both nodded as well while Flay watched all of this with a touch of fear and confusion.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"So that's it," commented Ades, a pleasant smile on his face, as he looked out the forward viewport at Artemis.

"The Umbrella of Artemis," said Rau with a smile almost identical to Ades's. "It appears they've already caught on to us. It's active."

"Well, we've finally arrived here, but we've failed to catch the Earth Forces new ship," said Ades.

"We've cut them off," said Rau. "The time is now."

"Rotate, one hundred and eighty degrees!" ordered Ades. "Match velocity to Artemis! Then proceed astern at low speed."

As Ades ordered, the _Vesalius_ rotated, and turned completely around, facing back towards Heliopolis. The _Vesalius_ activated its engines, halting its previous momentum, and propelling it back the way it came.

Straight towards the Earth Forces warship.

* * *

The _Archangel_

In the pilots' lounge/locker room, Kira and Lacus both finished putting on pilot suits, a blue one for Kira and pink for Lacus. It might restrict their movement slightly, but it would protect them from the vacuum of space if the cockpit of one of their machines was compromised.

"Huh," came Mu's voice, drawing their attention to the mobile armor ace in his own purple and black pilot suit. "Well, if those outfits are any indication, I'd say you decided to do it."

"You said so yourself, Lieutenant," said Kira as he grabbed his helmet. "Right now, we're the only ones who can protect this ship. It's not that we wanna fight—all we want to do is protect, because of the people onboard."

"It's the same for everybody," said Mu. "You won't find many people who wanna fight for no reason at all; personally, I've only ever known one such person. But for most of us, we fight because it's the only way we can protect ourselves."

Kira and Lacus both nodded in agreement, but the eyes of all three pilots—the rookie, teenage Coordinators, and the veteran adult Natural—showed that they agreed about something else: there were also those who fought not to protect but only to serve their own hatred. All of them were thinking of Blue Cosmos and the Bloody Valentine in that regard, and they all knew it, but Mu and Lacus were also thinking about the April Fool Crisis.

"Okay," said Mu, "let me explain our strategy."

* * *

As soon as Mu explained his strategy to them, the three left the lounge for their machines.

"No matter what, only think about protecting this ship, and yourselves," said Mu.

"Right," said Kira. "Be careful lieutenant." Mu gave a slight smile and clambered into his Zero, Kira and Lacus pushing themselves off towards their respective machines.

"_Moebius Zero, La Flaga to the linear catapult,_" came the intercom as the Zero was moved into place in the starboard catapult.

"Mu La Flaga, launching!" said Mu as he closed his visor and the Zero was released to fly out. "Don't let them get you before I return." With that, the Zero shot out of the catapult.

"_Laurasia_-class, closing in," announced Pal on the bridge. "Fifty to stern."

"Fire main engines in two minutes," said Murrue. "Strike, White Frame, prepare for launch now."

"_Strike, Sakura, proceed to launch position,_" came the intercom again, as the Strike and Sakura were dropped onto their respective catapults. "_Catapult connected. System all green._"

In the Sakura, Kira thought over their strategy.

_The lieutenant will sneak ahead and hit the enemy in front_, he reviewed as he shut his visor. _Meanwhile, we'll protect the ship from the enemy behind us. This is gonna work._

In the Strike, Lacus was also reflecting on the strategy as she closed her visor, and though she was no more comfortable than Kira, she was also less uncertain, and that allowed her to look between the lines and see something else.

After all, wouldn't it make more sense to send the Strike with the Launcher pack to attack the _Nazca_-class ahead of them, while the Sakura and Zero stayed behind to defend? The answer, to Lacus, was obvious.

Even though Mu fought for the same reasons as Kira and Lacus, he was a hardened veteran soldier, while they were just rookie volunteers. He wasn't going to burden them with the task of taking such an aggressive stance, particularly one that could cost a large number of lives.

"_Kira, Lacus?_" said a familiar voice suddenly, drawing both Coordinators from their reverie, and they looked up at the small communications screen in their cockpits.

"Miriallia?" asked Kira. Lacus stared at the display in open shock; although she had been the one to convince Kira to pilot the Sakura, she certainly hadn't anticipated _this_.

"_From this point on,_" said Mir, as both pilots observed Natarle looking over the teenager's shoulder, "_I will serve as the combat operator for the mobile suits and the mobile armor. I'm counting on you!_" She finished with a wink and peace sign.

"_We're all counting on you,_" came Sai's voice.

"But what are you…?" started Kira.

"_We didn't want to let you do all the work,_" said Mir, "_so we volunteered to help out with the ship's operation._"

Kira and Lacus both smiled slightly in appreciation. For Kira especially, this served to reinforce his belief that what he was doing was right.

"_Mount the Aile Striker and open the number three container for the White Frame,_" ordered Natarle. "_The enemy will appear when the __**Archangel**__ fires its engines. Be ready._"

"Right," said Kira as a section of the catapult opened next to him and held out the Schwert Gewehr; he stored his rifle on the Sakura's rear waist and then took hold of the sword. In the cockpit of the Strike, Lacus did a quick review of the Aile Striker that was currently being loaded.

"Fire engines," ordered Murrue on the bridge. "Now activate the assault cannons. Target the _Nazca_-class dead ahead."

As instructed, Arnold fired up the engines, finally regaining true control of the _Archangel_'s movements, while Pal readied the Lohengrin, a pair of massive, high-powered beam cannons more powerful than any two other weapons in the _Archangel_'s arsenal.

"Lohengrin, fire!" ordered Natarle as the ship began moving under its own power. Twin streams of fiery death blasted out from the _Archangel_, burning up debris in their path as they streaked unerringly towards their target.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Heat source approaching from ahead," announced the destroyer's fire control officer, "and a larger heat source detected behind it. It's a warship!" His voice became slightly panicked at the end.

"Take evasive action!" ordered Ades.

"I see we spooked them, and they fired off a round," commented Rau, smiling. "Tell Athrun to go ahead and launch."

* * *

The _Archangel_

"The ZAFT vessel ahead of us has launched a mobile suit," announced Kuzzey, sitting at the enemy search and detection station. "Looks like just one though."

"Captain?" said Natarle, her request obvious.

"By all means," said Murrue. Natarle turned to Miriallia.

"Have Kira and Lacus launch in the White Frame and Strike," she said.

"Kira, Lacus?" said Mir, certain they'd heard the order.

"Okay then," said Kira, closing his eyes and flexing his fingers, adjusting his grip on the Sakura's controls. He thought back to everything that had been said, remembering Mu's words about protecting the ship, his friends' decision to support him by helping on the bridge, and most importantly, Lacus's words of encouragement. Kira looked up, determination shining from his eyes.

"Kira Yamato, Sakura Gundam, heading out!" he called, launching from the catapult.

"Lacus Hirano, Strike Gundam, heading out!" called Lacus as she too shot forth from the catapult.

As the two cleared the catapults, they activated the Phase Shift armor on their machines, and the two recalled once again the promise they had made to each other, only now truly beginning to realize just how binding and absolute that promise was.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Like I said, I feel this one is a significant improvement over the last two. Not perfect, but then, nothing ever really is, is it?  
**

**As you can see, I've tried to adjust the crew dynamic a fair bit, as well as hammer out a few other details, among them actually giving the _Archangel_ crew as the numbers Natarle stated (seriously, there were at least _twenty_ surviving soldiers in canon; the bridge crew, at least four "foot soldiers" and 8-12 mechanics minimum). It makes things more interesting to do it this way, while also easily cutting down on the character count a bit.**

**Other then that, this chapter bluntly shows something that will be a clear trend in this fic: Athrun getting shafted. He doesn't show up once in this whole chapter, and he's barely even mentioned in passing. I understand that Kira and Athrun's friendship formed one of the narrative cores of canon, but frankly, Athrun is my _least_ favorite of the Gundam pilots. He's probably one of my least favorite characters altogether, because at least Patrick and Azrael were _supposed_ to be psychopaths that people would love to hate. I could go on for hours about my dislike of Athrun, but none of us have that kind of time, so I'll leave that here for now.**

**There's a few more implications of changes that have, so far, remained in the background. Some are obvious, others not so much.**

**Anyways, after the overwhelming response on the first chapter, the last chapter seemed almost lacklust in comparison, despite having a review count that most people would be quite proud of. I think the biggest thing is just that the responses were a lot slower. Regardless, I'm here to once again ask you to _please review_! I really enjoy reading them and learning what everyone thinks. What have I done right or wrong? I'm hoping to improve my writing ability enough to public an original story and have it take off well enough that I can focus on writing. Personally, I think that would be one of the best things that ever happened to my fics, since it would probably give me more time to work on them. ^_^**

**See you all next week! (and wish me luck getting to the Friday Night Magic tonight; stupid weather and transportation conditions...)**

**Edit: It has come to my attention that I neglected to specify something about the Lohengrin, though it was more or less stated in the chapter proper, but I think it needs to be made clear: the Lohengrin in this and all future stories by me are NOT Positron Cannons. All Positron Cannons will be replaced with super-powered beam cannons. The operation may vary from one story to the other (for instance, this one "works" like in canon being a normal beam, while another might fire two large "plasma spheres" for the sake of Rule of Cool), but I'm removing anti-matter weaponry completely from the series whenever I write it.**


	4. Face of the Enemy

**Well, I was a little worried I wouldn't manage to get this posted, but looks like I made it. Not a whole lot to say; we're still in the parts where I mostly just cleaned up the writing and changed it a tiny smidge here or there from the original.  
**

**Read on, please enjoy, and look forward to next week, when things finally start to change.**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Four: Face of the Enemy

January 25th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Three heat sources approaching from behind," said Kuzzey "Distance, um… sixty-seven. Heat signature indicates mobile suits."

"Here they come," murmured Murrue, letting Kuzzey's stumbling over his words pass; he was just a civilian volunteer after all, though even still, it was a huge relief when they offered to help out.

"Commence preparations now for anti-mobile suit combat," ordered Natarle, "load Korinthos into tubes thirteen through twenty-four. Activate both Valiant linear cannons. Input target data. Hurry!"

"We've identified the enemy mobile suits behind us," said Kuzzey. "System is showing match for… Duel, Buster and Blitz?"

"What's that?" questioned Natarle. "They're sending the G-weapons into combat?" Murrue looked at the forward viewport.

"Then that probably means the Aegis is the one ahead," she said. "We're about to face down all four of the stolen G-weapons."

That concerned the entire crew. Even with the Sakura and Strike, Kira and Lacus were just civilians. The ZAFT pilots were in machines of comparable power, and had received military training. Kira and Lacus would be pushing themselves to the extreme just to survive the encounter, much less defend the ship.

* * *

"_No matter what, only think about protecting this ship, and yourselves."_

Kira remembered Mu's words, and refused to forget them. Certainly, it was easier said than done, but Kira was further reinforced by his promise to Lacus.

Kira's eyes narrowed as he locked onto the mobile suit launched from the destroyer.

"_Kira, isn't that…?_" asked Lacus. Kira nodded.

"Yeah, the one from Heliopolis," he said, bringing up the information that had been added to the Sakura and Strike computers to help him and Lacus against the stolen machines, just in case. "X303 Aegis… wait, it's a transforming machine? What in the world…?"

* * *

"_Athrun has already left the __**Vesalius**__,_" said Yzak, piloting the Duel. "_Don't let him beat us._"

"_Heh, like I would,_" said Dearka.

"This isn't a competition," scolded Nicol. "Our job is to bring down the warship and the remaining prototypes."

"_Yeah, yeah,_" said Yzak. With that, the three broke apart, as the enemy vessel began launching dozens of missiles at them.

* * *

As Kira and Lacus flew towards the Aegis, the red Gundam fired off several shots from the beam rifle, which the two deflected with their shields.

"_Kira!_" called Lacus.

"Yeah, I got it," said Kira. The Aegis pilot was a trained soldier, and the mobile suit had the same basic equipment as the Aile Strike. Their beam rifles would be useless against the Aegis—if they could defend from his shots that easily, there was no way he wouldn't be able to return the favor.

Knowing that, Lacus pulled out one of her beam sabers, while Kira stored his shield on the Sakura's left leg and took hold of the Schwert Gewehr with both hands. In response, the Aegis activated the beam saber in its right wrist, and the mobile suits clashed.

* * *

"I'm gonna go backup Athrun," said Yzak, smirking at the thought of tangling with Earth Forces mobile suits. "Dearka and Nicol, you go after the ship."

"_Roger that,_" said Nicol as he blew apart several missiles with the beam rifle in his Trikeros shield. Nearby, Dearka blew up a half-dozen or so more with his gun-launcher's spread shot.

"_What?_" questioned Dearka.

"Knock off the whining Dearka and bag that trophy!" said Yzak. With that, the Duel took off for the confrontation between the Aegis and the two uncaptured machines, while Nicol and Dearka assaulted the ship.

"Man, talk about bossy," muttered Dearka as the Buster and Blitz weaved through shots fired from the stern-mounted linear cannons of the enemy warship.

* * *

"_Archangel_!" said Kira, seeing the ship under assault by two of the stolen Gundams.

"_Kira, look out!_" cried Lacus. Kira, sensing the threat Lacus warned him about, released the left hand from the Schwert Gewehr and drew a beam saber instead, extended both weapons out to full reach and began spinning like a top.

The Aegis, which had been moving in to attack, was forced to back off by the rather wild—if not entirely ineffective—defensive maneuver.

"We can't afford distractions," said Kira. "Let's take this guy out and get back to _Archangel_!"

"_Roger that,_" said Lacus, but a sudden beam of energy lancing through space between the battling Gundams drew everyone's attention.

"The Duel…" murmured Kira. Lacus did a quick check of the Duel's weapons.

"_Kira, you handle the Aegis, while I take the Duel,_" said Lacus. "_The sword is better suited to fighting the Aegis._"

"Got it," said Kira as the two broke apart to confront the two machines. "Be careful Lacus. Don't forget our promise."

"_Never, Kira,_" said Lacus.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Missiles incoming," announced Sai, manning one of the Electronic Warfare stations, though he was pulling off the duties of both stations. Still, regardless of what post they were assigned, they were supposed to be on alert and make sure their superiors knew what they did. "Igelstellungs auto-tracking is optimal. They're intercepting now."

"Good," said Natarle quietly. "Ready a barrage of Sledgehammer missiles in tandem with an assault from the Valiant."

"Roger that," said Pal. "Firing!"

The G-weapons maneuvered deftly through the missiles and cannon shots, but it was obvious they were starting to get annoyed. The Blitz fired up its main thruster to near full, maneuvering below _Archangel_, while the Buster targeted the missiles heading for the Blitz.

"Captain, the Blitz is approaching from below!" said Kuzzey, not quite able to keep the panic out of his voice.

"Lower Igelstellungs, commence interception," ordered Natarle.

"We'll use the Gottfrieds," said Murrue. "Left roll thirty degrees, port twenty. Got it?"

"Left roll thirty degrees, port twenty," repeated Arnold in confirmation as the _Archangel _maneuvered according to orders and the Gottfrieds popped up from their concealed turret bases on top of the _Archangel_'s forward "legs" (which also housed the Lohengrin and linear catapults).

As the _Archangel_ completed the maneuver, Pal took aim with the port side Gottfried and fired.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Enemy vessel approaching, distance seven forty," said the sensor officer.

"Message from the _Gamow_," added the comm. officer. "We've confirmed the total enemy combat force is two mobile suits."

"Both of them," murmured Rau, "and no mobile armor. So is it still not ready for sortie or…?"

"It's safe to make that assumption," concurred Ades. Rau watched the battling mobile suits before smiling slightly with a small shake of his head.

"More likely they simply don't have a pilot," he said. "I believe the Hawk has switched over to one of those machines; surprising, but hardly unexpected. Have my CGUE prepped for launch; I'm going out there."

"Yes sir," said Ades, somewhat surprised but not really showing it. However, Rau's words did make sense—it would certainly explain where the spare pilot came from.

"When the enemy vessel is in range," said Rau as he made his way towards the lift to the hangar deck, "target the main cannons and fire on them. The boys and I know better than to get caught in friendly fire."

* * *

Saber clashed on shield as the Strike and Duel sought to overpower one another. Meanwhile, the Aegis had pulled out all four of its beam sabers—one in each wrist and one in each foot—and was bringing them to bear on the Sakura as best it could.

Fortunately for Kira, that actually wasn't very well at all, and he was able to bring his sword and saber to parry every strike by the Aegis. Meanwhile, his opponent needed at least two sabers to block a strike by the Schwert Gewehr, even when wielded with just one hand.

Kira swung the Schwert Gewehr down on the Aegis as the pilot blocked with both wrist-mounted sabers. Inside, Athrun was beginning to seriously regret discarding his shield, as it was obvious this white machine was superior in terms of strength and mobility to his own machine.

Spotting his shield, Athrun shifted to mobile armor mode and fired a blast from the Scylla cannon, momentarily driving the Sakura away. Using the greater speed of the mobile armor form, Athrun rocketed to his shield, transforming back into mobile suit mode to take hold of it again. He'd only be able to fight with three sabers—actually, only one effectively, using the foot-mounted ones was anything but easy—but at least he could probably deflect a swing from that massive sword with only one hand. Hopefully.

Kira had just taken aim with his rifle, as the Aegis left itself momentarily vulnerable to attack in its mad rush for the shield (Kira guessed the Aegis pilot hadn't noticed the Sakura's rifle), and was on the verge of pulling the trigger when a sudden feeling in his gut told him someone else was attacking, and he rocketed the Sakura away just in time to dodge the machinegun bullets fired by the new arrival.

"That machine… the command unit!" muttered Kira, recognizing the CGUE that he'd hit with the Launcher Strike's Agni cannon.

"_Commander Le Creuset!_" called Athrun in surprise over the radio.

"Be more careful Athrun," said Rau. "Go support Yzak against the blue one—the first pilot we saw in this machine is in that one now. This one is piloted by the Hawk of Endymion."

"_W-what? Are you sure?_" asked Athrun.

"Yes," said Rau, almost sinisterly. "I can _feel_ it." With that, Rau charged the white mobile suit, immediately grateful for the anti-beam coating on his CGUE's sword and shield when he used them to deflect strikes from his opponent's large sword and saber.

* * *

The Strike and Duel broke apart after another fruitless clash. In the Strike, Lacus was breathing heavily, having difficulty matching up against the Duel pilot.

She just hoped it wasn't Athrun.

"_Lacus, look out!_" shouted Kira suddenly. In the same instant, Lacus detected a heat source approaching at high speed, and punched the Strike up to full speed to evade the Scylla blast from the Aegis.

"Oh no…" whispered Lacus. She was having enough trouble with just the Duel, she couldn't handle the Aegis at the same time!

Rereading the Aegis schematics with one eye while keeping the other on the battle, Lacus rearmed the Strike's beam rifle. As a mobile armor, the Aegis was too fast for her to hit, and as a mobile suit, it could protect itself with its shield.

But during the instant in which it transformed from mobile suit to armor, or vice versa, it would be completely vulnerable.

Seeing the opportunity, Lacus pulled the trigger, but the Duel pilot blocked the shot with his own shield.

"_Athrun, what are you doing here?_" shouted Yzak angrily as he deflected the rifle shot.

"_Commander Le Creuset ordered me to back you up,_" said Athrun. "_He wants the other machine to himself. Besides, I've got a score to settle with this guy._"

"_Argh… fine!_" said Yzak.

In something of a panic as both Aegis and Duel opened fire on her, Lacus pulled the trigger, firing off a dozen more shots with her beam rifle.

_No, stay calm Lacus_, she thought to herself. _Remember your training… oh, you never taught me to deal with this!_

* * *

"You're pretty good in that machine, Mu La Flaga," said Rau, smiling as he dodged a slash of the prototype's beam saber. He swung his CGUE's sword, and watched as it was blocked by Mu's shield—he'd managed to knock the large sword away a moment ago. The two were pretty evenly matched, Rau's skills and experience combining with Mu's lack of experience in a mobile suit to make up for the superiority of the Hawk's machine, but in the end, Rau had the advantage.

Within the Sakura, Kira was growing frustrated. His opponent, Le Creuset himself most likely, was a lot better than he was, and it was taking all of Kira's Coordinator reflexes, experience in exoskeleton robotics and the power of the Sakura to keep the CGUE at bay.

Suddenly, the Sakura was shaken by a heavy blow that Kira hadn't been able to intercept. Gritting his teeth, Kira swung his beam saber at the CGUE, but Rau ducked under it and body slammed the Sakura, sending Kira tumbling back. In that moment, Rau leveled his machinegun and opened up full auto, a veritable storm of bullets shooting down at Kira's machine… and none of them even leaving a scratch. Rau ejected his spent magazine, but in that moment, Kira drew his own rifle and opened fire with three quick shots, but Rau pulled out of Kira's sights at the last instant every time.

"I wonder Mu, what are the limits of that precious Phase Shift of yours?" murmured Rau, locking in a fresh magazine and opening fire with both machinegun and shield-vulcan.

Numerous bullets pinged off the Sakura's armor, but Kira managed to use its great agility to pull out from the barrage and charged back into close quarters, swapping his rifle back out for a saber and slashing at the CGUE with it—he figured that, sooner or later, he should be able to burn through the anti-beam coating on Rau's equipment.

Rau blocked Kira's slash with his own sword, the two locking blades for a moment. Seeing an opportunity, Kira took advantage of his one weapon Rau didn't know about, deploying the gatling gun mounted in the right wrist as he twisted it slightly and opened fire on the CGUE.

However, Rau sensed the danger, and shot away just as Kira was pulling the trigger. Panting, Kira shot away from his opponent, storing his shield and saber and instead recovering the Schwert Gewehr—the shield _shouldn't_ be necessary here, since Kira still had the PS armor.

Then, he went charging back in to strike the CGUE with everything he had.

In the CGUE, Rau smirked broadly.

"Not bad at all Mu…" Rau trailed off, his eyes suddenly widening in shock.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Detecting laser designator from the _Nazca_-class," said Pal a moment after the Buster and Blitz had fallen back from their attack. "Targeting our ship… locking onto us."

"Well captain?" asked Natarle. "Prepare to fire Lohengrin!"

"Huh?" said Murrue, turning to face Natarle. "Hold on, the Lieutenant's Zero is engaging. Evasive maneuvers!"

"Too risky," said Natarle. "Fire or draw fire."

Murrue slammed a fist down on the armrest of her seat in frustration. But it didn't matter. They had to follow Mu's plan, or they were finished, and she knew that. Natarle probably did too, but her military training told her to fire, even though doing so could potentially ruin their entire plan and subsequently lead to the destruction of the _Archangel_.

* * *

"Athrun, Yzak, what are you guys doing?" asked Dearka as he and Nicol arrived at the battle between the Aegis, Duel, and the blue machine. "Let's surround him!"

"_Right,_" said Athrun as the four pilots surrounded the Earth Forces machine, the pilot firing shot after shot just to keep them at bay.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"_Ades!_" came Rau's cry over the radio. "_Boost engines! Lower bow, pitch angle sixty!_"

"Huh?" murmured Ades, confused by his commander's sudden panic.

"Heat source approaching from below," said the sensor officer. "It's a mobile armor!"

"What?" said Ades quietly in shock. "Activate CIWS! Boost engines! Lower bow, pitch angle sixty!"

The _Vesalius _began the maneuver… but it was already too late.

* * *

Mu smiled as the destroyer reacted too late. Deploying the Zero's gunbarrels, he locked everything he had on the ship, blasting away with the Zero's entire arsenal, inflicting tremendous damage, particularly to the engines.

"All right!" shouted Mu as he fired a rocket anchor into the destroyer's hull, using it to tug him around and give him to inertia to rocket away from the ZAFT warship.

* * *

_Damn you Mu_, thought Rau as he again clashed with the sixth prototype and its once again unknown pilot.

"Ades, send word to the _Gamow_," he said over the radio. "We're pulling out."

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Message from the Lieutenant," said Miriallia, pulling double duty of mobile weapon controller and comm. officer. "Mission accomplished; now returning to ship."

A few murmurs of awe followed her words as Murrue sighed in relief.

"Let's get them," said Murrue. "Target the _Nazca_-class up ahead."

"Lohengrin one and Lohengrin two, standby!" ordered Natarle.

"Message Lieutenant La Flaga to clear out," said Murrue. "Also caution the Strike and White Frame to avoid our ship's line of fire."

"Assault cannon bank breath chamber at maximum," announced Pal, "muzzle choke potential stabilized, opening barrels."

* * *

In the Strike, Lacus was breathing heavily as she weaved through the enemy machines and fired blasts from the rifle to keep them at bay, when she received the warning from the _Archangel_.

As the blue-white machine broke away, Athrun and Nicol gasped at the message they received from the _Gamow_:

**A. VESALIUS was damaged by surprise attack.**

**Withdraw all units immediately.**

"_The __**Vesalius**__ was hit?!_" exclaimed Yzak.

"_How?_" breathed Nicol.

"_They're ordering us to retreat?_" questioned Dearka.

Athrun was the first to notice the blue machine's sudden movements. "Everyone, clear out!" he shouted.

"_Oh shit,_" said Yzak when he saw it.

In that same instant, the Earth Forces warship fired off its assault cannons.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Heat source approaching, direction zero-zero-zero," announced the fire control officer. "Impact in three seconds!" There was no mistaking the panic in his voice.

"Starboard, maximum thrust!" exclaimed Ades. "Evade it!"

The _Vesalius_ followed orders, breaking to the right as quickly as it could, but between the small time window and the damage earlier, one of the massive streams of red energy slammed right into the outermost edge of the port "wing," with the massive heat released causing nearly the entire wing to collapse.

"Damn…" muttered Ades.

* * *

Out in space, the mobile suits all watched as the _Archangel_ launched return signal flares.

"A return signal?" muttered Yzak. "He's not going too! Not if I can help it!" With that, Yzak charged.

"Yzak, we've been ordered to retreat!" said Athrun.

"_Keep your mouth shut, you coward!_" said Yzak hotly. Athrun grit his teeth at his comrade's apparent stupidity.

"This is getting ridiculous…" muttered Lacus as she began tumbling about in her attempts to evade the Duel and Buster. She was grateful that the Blitz and Aegis seemed to have been pacified by the assault on their flagship.

* * *

"What? The pink princess can't get back?" said Mu, as the _Archangel_ signaled the Strike's situation to him. "Damn it!"

Mu turned his eyes to where Kira was being kept busy by a familiar silver mobile suit. Coming to a quick decision, he gripped the Zero's controls and launched himself in that direction.

* * *

"Oh no…" whispered Lacus fearfully as the Strike ran out of power. She'd been growing increasingly worried about it, but in the frenzy of the Duel and Buster's assault, she'd been unable to do much about it, returning fire wildly in an effort to hold them back.

Lacus watched as the Duel charged at her, beam saber held at the ready. Putting as much power into the engines as she could, Lacus tried to get away, but knew it wouldn't be enough. She closed her eyes.

Kira…

The Strike shook violently, and Lacus opened her eyes… to discover her machine was held in the vice-like grip of the Aegis's mobile armor claw.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"She's been overpowered!" said Sai. "The Strike has been captured by the Aegis!"

"Energy capacitors have been drained," added Mir, "the Phase Shift armor has failed."

"_Laurasia_-class has closed range to two-eighty," said Pal.

"Captain!" called Natarle.

"Lacus, please respond!" called Mir over the radio before something popped on her screen. "Huh? Ah, message from Lieutenant La Flaga: prepare to deploy Launcher Striker with the catapult."

"What?" questioned Natarle. Murrue glanced over her shoulder into the CIC, a confused expression on her face.

* * *

"Lacus!" cried Kira as the Strike was caught by the Aegis. Before he could interfere, though, he was attacked by the CGUE, landing a kick directly on the Sakura's cockpit hatch. "Damn it!"

A sudden burst of fire drew the attention of both machines.

"_Kid, go help the pink princess!_" said Mu as the Zero deployed top and bottom gunbarrels and attacked the CGUE. "_I've got the_ _**Archangel**__ preparing to send her a Launcher pack. Now hurry!_"

"Right!" said Kira, gripping the Sakura's controls in determination as he shunted all available power into his machine's thrusters, propelling himself at full acceleration in the direction of the Strike and the stolen Gundams.

* * *

In the cockpit of the Strike, Lacus listened as the ZAFT pilots argued with one another—all of them voices she recognized.

"_What are you doing Athrun?!_" demanded Yzak.

"_I'm capturing this machine!_" responded Athrun. Well, that solved that mystery, a small part of Lacus's mind noted. Athrun was piloting the Aegis…

"_What was that?!_" shouted Yzak.

"_We were told to destroy it, you're disobeying orders!_" said Dearka.

"_You two shouldn't be talking about disobeying orders!_" retorted Athrun. "_We've seen how this thing performs, if we have the chance to capture it, all the better. This isn't about personal glory, now let's go!_"

"_I have to agree with Athrun,_" came Nicol's softer voice. "_Besides, we were told to destroy it only if we couldn't capture it._"

"Damn it… that bastard…" muttered Yzak.

Throughout all this, Lacus remained silent. She wanted to call Kira for help, but felt certain he was already on his way, and knew that any communications attempts would be intercepted by the Aegis.

Taking a deep breath, Lacus pressed a button on the arm of her seat, revealing the self-destruct controls for the Strike; ZAFT couldn't be allowed to know that she'd fought for the Earth Forces under any circumstances. It would destroy her father's political position, and leave Patrick Zala in a position to escalate the war further.

_I'm sorry, Kira_, thought Lacus, as tears floated from her eyes, _please hurry. I don't want to leave… but I can't let them find out that I'm in here… my life isn't worth the millions that can be saved by peace…_

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" roared Kira as he suddenly burned in from seemingly out of nowhere and slammed into the Aegis with the Sakura, the jarring blow sending the red mobile armor tumbling through space, the grip of its claws on the Strike coming loose and allowing Lacus to escape while Kira rebalanced power and himself after the high-speed collision that had taken a significant chunk out of both machines' power reserves. Kira glared at the Aegis and Duel pilots, anger for the way they'd threatened Lacus boiling in his blood.

"Get out of here Lacus!" said Kira over the radio. "The _Archangel_'s getting ready to send out the Launcher Striker!"

Lacus glanced briefly at the Aegis, now knowing that the pilot was Kira's best friend and her fiancé. But she refused to tell him that. She knew Yzak well enough to know that if Kira hesitated, he would die.

"Got it," said Lacus as she took off for the _Archangel_. The Duel attempted to take off in pursuit, but Kira cut it off with a blast from the beam rifle that ended up knocking its shield away. The Duel used the left hand to take hold of a beam saber, and attempted to close with the Sakura.

However, Kira was not in the mood for _any_ games now. He deployed the right gatling gun and fired it at the Duel on full auto, a barrage of large caliber bullets with enough force to push it back even if they couldn't pierce the PS armor. It left the Duel momentarily vulnerable, and Kira charged it with the Schwert Gewehr held in a two-handed grip.

The Sakura was running low on power itself due to the numerous blows from the CGUE and body checking the Aegis, but so long as Lacus was safe, Kira couldn't care less at that moment. Swinging the sword at the Duel, ready to cleave the offending Gundam in two, Kira saw the Aegis come in to block with its shield, but the sheer force with which Kira made the swing, combined with the mass of the sword and his tremendous thrust, caused the Aegis's shield and left arm to be cleaved in half the way the Duel almost was.

"Get the hell out of my way!" shouted Kira as he spun around, delivering a kick to the Aegis's head, knocking it away from him and the Duel. Fire from the Buster and Blitz forced Kira to pull back momentarily, giving the Duel a chance to draw its own rifle along with the Aegis. Seeing this, Kira quickly drew his own rifle while holding the Schwert Gewehr in the Sakura's left hand, and taking instinctive, split second aim, opened fire with three quick shots, momentarily driving off the Blitz and Buster, and actually piercing the Duel's left wrist, destroying it completely. Unfortunately for Kira, when he pulled the trigger again, nothing happened, the power pack in the beam rifle fully drained. To make a bad situation worse, a glance at his power readouts revealed that he had only moments left before falling into the red zone himself.

"No way… _now_?!" cried Kira in frustration. The Duel took aim with its rifle, the Aegis doing the same—the pilot apparently no longer caring about capturing machines—and Kira knew he was in trouble, the Buster taking aim with its beam rifle as well even as Kira released the Schwert Gewehr and went for his own shield.

A sudden massive stream of energy shot through space, catching and disintegrating the Duel's right arm, while the Aegis and Buster fired off their shots. Now only dealing with two shots, Kira was able to just narrowly dodge one and block the other with his shield, letting the Sakura get away unscathed. Meanwhile, secondary explosions from the intense heat chained through the Duel, setting off the CIWS munitions and obliterating the head while very nearly destroying the thrusters as well.

Pulling back (and retrieving the anti-ship sword while he was at it), Kira turned his attention to where the massive red energy blast had originated, and saw the Strike firing like crazy at the Gundams surrounding Kira. Taking full advantage of the opening, Kira withdrew back towards the _Archangel_, sidling into space beside the Strike, as the Zero did the same, and the enemy Gundams and CGUE finally retreated.

* * *

The _Gamow_ Pilots Locker Room

"Argh, damn it!" shouted Yzak as he angrily slammed his fist into the wall. He'd failed to destroy the blue mobile suit… and it was all Athrun's fault! But Yzak couldn't even take his frustrations over his lost glory out on the blue-haired teen, for the commander had agreed with Athrun—both about capturing the enemy machine, _and_ about Yzak disobeying his own orders to retreat.

Although, if he was honest with himself, he didn't know who frustrated him more: Athrun, the pilot of the blue machine that they'd hoped Rusty would be able to steal, or the pilot of the unknown white machine that had stopped Athrun from succeeding, which would've been far less humiliating than what happened.

* * *

The _Archangel_

Even though the Sakura was lower on power, the Strike was sent in first, and as soon as Kira got out of his machine, he saw the mechanics surrounding the Strike's cockpit, talking to Mu about how Lacus wouldn't come out.

Kira clenched his fist angrily as he pushed himself over there, discarding his helmet along the way. As Mu opened the hatch, Kira gripped it, and pulled himself inside.

"Lacus!" exclaimed Kira as he saw the pink-haired girl panting heavily, her hands clenching on the Strike's controls. Kira pushed himself farther inside and wrapped his arms around her.

"Lacus, I'm sorry," said Kira softly. "But everything's okay now… we're alright… everyone is alright…"

"Kira…" said Lacus softly, the tears evident in her voice. She pushed herself out of the seat, releasing the Strike's controls, and pushed Kira out of the cockpit, wrapping her arms around him as they floated through the hanger away from the Gundam. Even though he was doing better than Lacus, Kira was actually feeling much the same.

Mu sighed watching them, smiling slightly as they embraced each other.

"They may have incredible talent," he said, "but they're still just teenage kids… it's a good thing we have both of them. I don't want to even think of what sort of emotional state they'd be in without having each other to lean on for support."

* * *

"Message from Artemis," said Miriallia. "Request to enter port acknowledged. Inspecting officer is being sent."

"Alright then," said Murrue, her relief obvious. "Thank you."

Things had gone surprisingly well for them. Sure, they had almost lost both Kira and Lacus, but the two were only civilian volunteers, going up against four trained soldiers, and a hardened veteran known to have been present at every major space engagement of the war, excepting perhaps the Bloody Valentine Tragedy itself. And, with only relatively minor support from Mu and the _Archangel_, they'd been successful in driving off the enemy. The two had successfully held their own against five other machines, four of them of the same overall model as their own, and piloted by soldiers with actual training.

It was nothing short of astounding. Murrue didn't want to admit it, but when she realized what they were up against, she'd been certain that both Kira and Lacus were going to die. The two had a natural talent for piloting that Murrue knew only appeared in one out of every thousand or even hundred thousand individuals… but they were still just untrained kids.

"We were lucky…" Murrue muttered under her breath.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"Commander Le Creuset, we've received a message from the homeland," said the comm. officer, handing the small printout to Rau, who read it over before passing it to Ades.

"A summons to appear before the Supreme Council?" asked Ades in surprise as he read it. "You're kidding!" he said, looking at Rau. "After coming this far and nearly cornering them?"

"I'd say there's turmoil among the Council," said Rau calmly after a moment, "probably over the events preceding the collapse of Heliopolis. Well, it can't be helped." Rau smiled. "We'll instruct the _Gamow_ to remain here, and continue pursuit."

"Right," said Ades reluctantly.

"Have Athrun return," said Rau. "The _Vesalius_ will set off for the homeland as soon as repairs are completed."

Truthfully, Rau didn't want to leave, but he knew the Council would need to hear it from him directly. Under any other circumstances, he probably wouldn't mind, but the pilot of mysterious white mobile suit intrigued him. He'd mistaken the pilot for Mu La Flaga, getting the same feeling as he did around Mu and Rau's "rival," Falcon, that same sixth sense that told him when the Hawk or Falcon were near.

And Rau wanted that pilot. More than the warship, more than the mobile suit itself, Rau wanted _that_ pilot.

As for his choice on who to bring with him… Dearka and Yzak were too hotheaded to have made clear and accurate observations of the enemy machine, and Nicol had never really engaged either enemy mobile suit, though admittedly, he had engaged the legged ship. Athrun, on the other hand, had done battle with both machines… and had actually fought with the white one on three separate occasions, counting the lull during which Rau fought the pilot as separating two of them. Better than anyone else, Athrun could report on the capabilities of the remaining machines, and he could examine the data on the other four during the journey to the PLANTs.

* * *

The _Archangel_

Kira and Lacus stepped out of the locker room wearing Earth Forces cadet uniforms—blue for Kira and pink for Lacus.

Their breathing was still somewhat strained, as they were still recovering from the strain of the battle and the near death experiences they had undergone.

"Huh?" muttered Kira, as they found Mu waiting outside the door. The lieutenant playfully grabbed Kira, wrapping his arm around his neck.

"I forgot to mention this earlier," said Mu pleasantly.

"Okay…?"

"Put a lock on the Strike and White Frame's activation programs," said Mu. Then, his voice turned more serious. "Make sure that no one can operate those mobile suits but you two."

"Huh?" said Kira. Then, he shook his head, and shared a quick look with Lacus. "Alright, will do."

* * *

"Wow…" murmured Flay as the _Archangel_ backed into Artemis, moving through the inactive section of the umbrella.

"It's a lightwave barrier, known as the Umbrella of Artemis," explained Sai. The two were standing at the back observation deck, after Flay had recovered from her fear of the battle, and Sai had recovered from Flay's earlier anger at him for leaving her alone like that. "They say it even blocks laser beams. It's the ultimate defensive weapon."

"I'm so relieved," said Flay, smiling. "We can finally feel safe. Wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah," said Sai, matching her smile.

* * *

_Oh great_, thought Murrue, Natarle, and Mu all at once as they were locked into place and the _Archangel_ was surrounded by Moebius mobile armors and armed soldiers.

"Captain?" said Natarle.

"What's going on there?" asked Tolle. Murrue turned to the inspection officer from Artemis.

"Well, commander?" she asked.

"I must advise you, captain, remain silent," said the officer.

"I was afraid of this…" said Mu under his breath. Then, he smirked slightly behind his hand. _Ah well. They won't get the Strike or the White Frame… though I have to wonder who's in charge here… most Eurasians wouldn't behave quite like this…_

* * *

**Author's Notes: And there you have it. Once again, not a whole lot of change beyond cleanup and replacing the Murakumo with the Sakura.**

**Given that, there is, of course, not much for me to say here. No real personal news to add either, so let me just say that I've put in some work on one of my Naruto fics, and we can hopefully see an update on that soon-ish.**

**Please leave a review, and I'll see you all next week! (and maybe sooner for some of you if I luck out and finish the next chapter of _Tale of the Kitsune_)**

**Ja ne!**


	5. Traitor…

**Ah, Artemis. The classic scrappy of _Gundam SEED_ rewrite fics. So much abuse, and at the same time, so little variation actually done. I admit, I'm no better, which is of course why I started skipping over it in my stories.  
**

**But not here, and if I should return to Artemis again in rewrites (such as the prequel to _Awakening_, which I swear I _will_ post one day), then I'll find some way to completely "mutilate" the canon Artemis events.**

**No real change to the greater events, but this chapter _does_ feature some character shifts. That's the real focus on it, the characters, rather than on any changed occurrences.**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. A few OCs I do not own are mentioned in passing.**

* * *

Phase Five: Traitor…

January 25th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Alright, freeze!" said an Artemis soldier as he entered the mess hall where the refugees, along with Kira, Lacus and Sai, were resting in the wake of the battle on the way to Artemis. The soldier—and his four companions—leveled assault rifles at the group. "Don't move!"

The same was happening on the bridge, in the hangar, and everywhere else throughout the ship, as armed Eurasian soldiers took the entire crew—and the passengers—into custody.

"What are you doing?" demanded Murrue.

"Lieutenant Commander Biddulph," said Natarle, "I request an explanation for these actions. I assure you, we…"

"I'm only locking down the ship's controls and weapons systems as part of our standard security measures," said Biddulph, interrupting her.

"Locking down? But there's no need for you…" started Natarle, but a soldier aimed a gun at her.

"Your vessel isn't recorded in the ship register," continued Biddulph, "naturally we have no identification code for it. Given the circumstances, we permitted you entrance to our port. Unfortunately, it hasn't yet been determined if we recognized you as friendly."

"But that doesn't…" Natarle began to object.

"This is a military facility," said Biddulph. "At the very least, I'd appreciate it if you kept that in mind."

_Something else is up_, thought Murrue, gritting her teeth. _Mu was right after all…_

"Now, I would like the officers to brief us on the current situation," said Biddulph. "You shall accompany me."

* * *

"The top secret military project of the Atlantic Federation," said Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia, the commander of the Artemis base, staring at screens displaying the harbor from his office. He smiled. "Who would've guessed it would jump right into our lap?"

"So, all those rumors that have been circulating about Heliopolis were true after all," said Garcia's second-in-command.

"We'll invite these people to remain here," said Garcia, still smiling, "on an extended 'shore leave'." At that moment, there came a knock on the door.

"Excuse me sir," came the voice of Biddulph. "I've brought with me three officers from the unidentified vessel."

"Yes, enter," said Garcia. Biddulph opened the door and entered, followed by Murrue, Natarle, and Mu. Garcia stood up, smiling even more broadly. "Greetings, welcome to Artemis."

* * *

"Eurasia is supposed to be an ally," said Sai, looking at Pal. "Don't they have good relations with the Atlantic Federation?"

"Not really," said Pal. "Truth is, the only relations in the Alliance more tense than between us and the Eurasians is the one between us and the USSA. It might not be a problem if we had proper identifications codes, though…"

"Eh, they're just latching onto that as an excuse," said Murdoch quietly, glancing at Arnold. "There's something else going on here."

"I agree," said Arnold.

Kira sighed, stepping over into a corner with Lacus.

"What do you think of this?" asked Kira quietly.

"I think we may be in trouble," she said softly. "Le Creuset is one of ZAFT's elite, a dangerous strategist and extraordinarily persistent. And from the looks of things, we haven't found allies at all."

"Yeah…"

* * *

"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," said Garcia, looking over the information on his computer. "Well, it would appear your identification has been confirmed as authentic Atlantic Federation IDs."

"We apologize for any trouble we might've caused," said Mu, taking the lead.

"Think nothing of it," said Garcia. "As a matter of fact, I'm well acquainted with your illustrious name. You're the one they call the 'Hawk of Endymion'. I too saw my share of action while stationed at the Grimaldi Front." Garcia then grimaced slightly. "Came closer to death there than anywhere else, too, when the Falcon and his demons showed up."

"Ah, then you were with Commodore Valard's unit?" asked Mu, hiding his own grimace. The "Falcon" to which Garcia referred was the infamous "Grimaldi Falcon," an elite ZAFT commander who led a squadron nicknamed the "Gray Demons." The Falcon was famous for his close-combat tactics, his battle cry that harkened to the peregrine falcon, and his love for attacking from above in a manner reminiscent of the same predator. Mu had tangled with the man at the Battle of the Endymion Crater, after managing to piss him off by shooting down one of his demons. It was an encounter Mu barely survived—though the Falcon later saved his life by warning him of the Cyclops System blast that ended the battle.

Murrue also suppressed a grimace at the mention of the ZAFT ace. A close friend of hers had nearly been shot down by the Falcon, when the man had decided to leisurely sit outside the carrier she was a crewman on at the time, blowing apart the mobile armors as they emerged. The man seemed to have a bizarre sense of humor, but the results couldn't be denied.

"That's right," said Garcia, in response to Mu's query. "The battle may have ended in defeat for the Earth Forces, but your heroic feat in single-handedly taking out five GINNs gave us a sorely needed morale boost, and the destruction of the Knights didn't hurt." Garcia was referring to another infamous ZAFT team, most of which had been destroyed in the Endymion Cyclops blast, though their leader had survived and formed a new team since then.

"Very kind of you to say, sir," said Mu.

"However," continued Garcia, "who would've believed _you_, of all people, would appear on that vessel?"

"I'm on a special mission sir," said Mu. "Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to disclose any details at this time."

"I understand," said Garcia. "But it'll be difficult to resupply you right away."

"It's absolutely vital that we head to Lunar HQ as soon as humanly possible," said Murrue. "As you know, we're being pursued by ZAFT."

"By ZAFT?" said Garcia, something almost condescending about his demeanor. He pressed a button on his desk, and the nature scenes displayed on the screen behind him disappeared, replaced by an image of Artemis, umbrella shield activated, the surrounding space… and a single _Laurasia_-class frigate. Murrue gasped. "As you can see, the ship has been roaming around outside the umbrella." Garcia turned his chair to face the screen. "They've been there for a short while now. One or two vessels are of little concern to us here, though if you were resupplied…" Garcia turned his chair back to face them, "it would still mean you'd be unable to depart, wouldn't it?"

"They won't abandon their pursuit of the _Archangel_," said Mu. "We cannot afford to remain here for long and risk damage to Artemis."

Garcia chuckled. "Did I hear you right?" he asked. "Damage to our base? They're powerless to do anything to us, and they'll eventually leave, it happens all the time."

"With all do you respect commandant, they're…" Mu stared, but was cut off as Garcia raised a hand.

"At any rate, I recommend you get some R&R," said Garcia. "You appear to be exhausted. I'll have your quarters prepared." He pressed another button.

"Commandant couldn't we…?" started Mu again.

"Excuse me sir," said an officer, opening the door.

"We'll have a chance to get in contact with Lunar Headquarters once they leave," said Garcia, seemingly to reassure them. "We'll make arrangements afterwards."

"You're that certain?" said Mu after a moment. "You think Artemis is that safe?"

"Heh; as safe as an infant in its mother's arms."

Naturally, this did nothing to reassure them.

* * *

A short while later, after the _Archangel_'s officers had been escorted to their room, Natarle privately let her companions know her opinion.

"Sure the ship may be unregistered," she said, "but this kind of treatment is inexcusable." Military protocol was so heavily coded into Natarle's psyche that the thought of ambitious soldiers acting against protocol to further their own goals was almost entirely foreign to her.

"There isn't much we can do," said Mu. "Right now, those guys would much prefer we didn't return to the ship. But there's something that concerns me even more." Mu looked down at the ground in thought. "The fact these soldiers here on Artemis have this unquestioning faith that their secure against any enemy assault."

"No base cannot be taken," said Murrue in agreement, "and no defense is perfect or absolute."

* * *

The _Gamow_

An hour later

Yzak was in a very, _very_ bad mood, and the reason why was pretty readily apparent: while Dearka and Nicol got to keep their fancy new captured machines, Yzak had gotten stuck in a GINN so that he could fly while the heavily damaged Duel was taken back to the PLANTs aboard the _Vesalius_ to try and get it repaired.

However, while everyone knew _why_ he was in a bad mood, it wasn't something any of them really wanted to tolerate, not even Dearka and Nicol, so Yzak did his best to rein it in—mostly by just keeping his mouth shut.

Right now, after settling themselves fully, Captain Zelman had gathered the three pilots in order to discuss how to go about their current mission.

"The Umbrella blocks all lasers and projectiles coming at it," explained Zelman, as the tactical screen displayed a digitized model of Artemis and the umbrella, "although the same could be said for anything going out."

"So what it comes down to is, they won't be attacking us," said Dearka, somewhat condescendingly. "What a perfectly lame invention."

"Though as a purely defensive weapon, it's quite an achievement," countered Zelman. "This base hasn't had any strategic importance, so up to this point, our forces have pretty much ignored it outside of the General expressing interest in trying to crack it open."

"I'm guessing the opportunity never arose?" said Nicol. "I've known the General for years; can't see something like this slowing someone like that down for long."

"Correct, but for that very reason, irrelevant to our current situation," said Zelman. "For us, it's a matter of not having the means to break through that Umbrella, so we're in a tricky position, but they're pretty much stuck as well."

"So, what's the strategy then?" asked Dearka. "Kick back till they come out?" Dearka snickered to himself at that. Zelman frowned at his behavior.

"Stop clowning around Dearka," said Yzak angrily. "When the commander gets back, do _you_ wanna be the one to tell him we weren't able to do anything? We'd be totally humiliated."

Nicol was quiet, frowning as he stared at the tactical screen.

_Think Nicol, think! What would the General quote out of that book at you at a time like this? 'So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak'… no, there isn't a weakness here, not while that Umbrella is up… wait, that's it!_

"Captain Zelman, when does the Umbrella of Artemis close?" asked Nicol, drawing everyone's attention.

"It only remains active while enemies are still in the area," said Zelman, frowning. "The problem is, even if we were to approach while it was closed, they'd detect us before we got within range of the fortress and simply reactivate the Umbrella."

"So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak," muttered Nicol.

"Nicol…?" questioned Dearka uncertainly.

"What is the weakness of the lightwave barrier?" asked Nicol before barreling on to answer his own question. "It's the emitters. The Umbrella is projected by a series of emitters across the surface of the fortress. That is where the defense of Artemis is weak, and by extension, that's where we must strike."

"Yeah but even with the Buster's sniper rifle, we couldn't expect to hit enough emitters before the Umbrella went up, and I don't think I could make more than a few shots before an N-jammer started interfering as well."

"True, but that's a direct method that ends up striking at what's strong again," said Nicol. "All warfare is based on deception… so breaking down, we need to find a way to strike at the fortress's weakness, and a deception is the best way to do that… and I think I know the perfect tool to do it."

"And what is that, coward?" demanded Yzak irritably. Nicol looked up, seeming almost serene.

"The Blitz is a rather unique machine," said Nicol. "Sure, it has the same Phase Shift armor as the other mobile suits, but it has another rather interesting feature as well, one that, used right, will put me in a position to take down the Umbrella emitters." He tapped the screen. "To strike at what is weak…"

* * *

Garcia stood in the Artemis control room, looking out at the _Archangel_ docked right outside, smiling.

He still couldn't believe his luck. The power this would bring, not only to Eurasia, but also to him personally…

The console in front of him beeped suddenly, alerting him that someone wanted to speak with him. Activating the intercom, he spoke.

"What is it?" he asked.

"_The ZAFT __**Laurasia**__-class is leaving the area,_" said the officer, "_Yellow eighteen, mark twenty, Charlie, distance seven hundred and increasing steadily._"

"Very good," said Garcia. "I'll leave it to Rize to handle it. Continue to maintain surveillance of the area." At that moment, his lieutenant entered the control room behind him. "Find anything?" asked Garcia.

"Sir, it's proceeding smoothly," reported the lieutenant. "We're still in the process of examining the unregistered vessel. However, about the mobile suits…"

"Well, what is it?" asked Garcia.

"There are locks on the OS's that we simply haven't been able to figure out," he said. "We have been attempting to activate them, but have had little success."

"What?"

"We have assigned all of our technicians to study how to remove the lock, and they're working on it as we speak," continued the officer. Garcia gritted his teeth. This could be trouble.

* * *

The _Gamow_

"Distance from Artemis, twenty-five hundred, still no change in the protective lightwave barrier," said the _Gamow_'s sensor officer.

Down in the hangar, Nicol was prepping the Blitz.

"Mirage Colloid voltage check," said Nicol. "System all green, ready to launch." Nicol sighed. "Trial and error with an untested system… well, guess I'll be counting on Lesson Thirty-One…" _If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid._

"The Earth Forces sure come up with some bizarre stuff," commented Yzak to Dearka in the lounge.

"It seems appropriate for Nicol," said Dearka, smiling condescendingly. "A weapon fit for a coward." The Blitz, meanwhile, stood up and headed out to the catapult, ready to launch at any time.

* * *

The _Archangel_

Garcia stepped into the mess hall, where the entire small crew, discounting the officers and counting the refugees, had been relocated by the Artemis soldiers.

"Who among you are the pilots and mechanics of the mobile suits aboard this ship?" asked Garcia. No one responded.

"The pilots and mechanics of the mobile suits," repeated his lieutenant, "they're here, aren't they?" Kira almost spoke up, but a quick glance from Murdoch told him and Lacus to remain quiet.

"Why are you asking us this?" asked Arnold, stepping up. He was the ranking NCO, after all.

"What?" demanded the lieutenant, grabbing the front of Arnold's uniform.

"The captain and our officers didn't say?" said Arnold. "Or aren't you permitted to ask?"

The question reminded Kira and Lacus of Mu's words just before entering Artemis, telling them to lock their machines OS's. Now it made sense.

"Enough," said Garcia calmly. The lieutenant released Arnold, who straightened his uniform, as Garcia stepped forward. "That's right. We're well aware that you're elite personnel of the Atlantic Federation, who've been specifically selected for this top secret military project."

"What is it you're planning do with the Strike and White Frame?" asked Arnold. Somehow, he knew that it would be best not to mention that the Sakura was actually an Orb machine.

"We're not planning to do anything with them," said Garcia. "The fact of the matter is, we feel privileged to be granted the opportunity to see them before they're officially announced. Now, who are the pilots?"

_What a load of crap_, thought Arnold, along with several other crewmen.

They were also in a bind, now. Were it only one machine, they could easily claim that Mu was the pilot. But with both machines, and the Zero in mind, they couldn't say that.

"We're shorthanded," said Arnold, "so I flew one, while Lieutenant La Flaga flew the other."

"Now, don't lie," said Garcia. "We've been monitoring all of the previous battles you fought; somebody was handling the Zero and its gunbarrels. There's only one person capable of such a thing, and it's him, and while I might have believed you about the other pilot, gut instinct, given your other lie, tells me all of it is a lie." Garcia walked over to the nearest of the volunteers, Miriallia, and grabbed her arm hard, tugging her to her feet.

"Miriallia!" exclaimed Tolle as she cried out slightly in pain.

"I never imagined a woman to be assigned to pilot such a mobile suit," said Garcia, "but, it occurs to me the captain of this ship is a woman."

"Ow!" exclaimed Mir as Garcia tightened his grip.

"Cut it out, you're just a bully!" said Kira, stepping forward.

"Kid, don't…" started Murdoch, but Kira—and Lacus—ignored him.

"You want to know who was piloting them?" asked Kira.

"_We_ were," said Lacus, her hand on Kira's shoulder, an uncharacteristic glare on her features.

* * *

"Regular patrol sweep," announced one of the Artemis control officers. "No sign of enemies within defensive perimeter."

"Okay, it's fine now," said the officer in charge. "Switch lightwave barrier facilities to level two alert status."

Outside the defense perimeter, the _Gamow_ detected the closing of the umbrella, and opened the catapult for the Blitz.

Nicol launched his machine immediately, and as he did so, he pressed a button. From the _Gamow_'s point of view, the Blitz suddenly vanished into nothingness.

"Mirage Colloid formation looks good," the green-haired pilot said to himself. "Dispersion loss rate: thirty-seven percent. Its usage is limited to a maximum of eighty minutes; this'll be close."

That in mind, Nicol burned the Blitz at the maximum safe speed for Artemis.

* * *

In the _Archangel_'s mess hall, most of the refugees had frozen in surprise at Kira and Lacus's proclamation, as hardly any of them had been aware of this fact, and while it flew over the heads of some, most of them understood the implications.

"Well young man," said Garcia, walking up to the two, but seeming to ignore Lacus, "I admire your sense of duty in protecting the girl." His eyes then ran over both of them. "But those machines weren't made for someone like you to operate! Get serious, you twerps." He then tried to punch Kira, but the young Coordinator's reflexes were more than a match for it, as he dodged and gripped Garcia's arm, throwing the Eurasian officer unceremoniously to the ground.

"I haven't done anything to deserve you getting angry and hitting me," said Kira, looking down at Garcia on the ground.

"Commandant!" exclaimed his lieutenant, pushing through the crowd to Garcia.

"What is it with you people?" questioned Kira, ignoring Murdoch again as the mechanic tried to discourage him.

The lieutenant grabbed Kira's uniform and pulled back an arm to punch him.

"Don't do it!" said Sai, instinctively rushing forward to try and stop him. The lieutenant tried to knock Sai away, but his arm was caught by Lacus who, despite being much more delicate than Kira, was plenty strong enough to hold the offending limb in place.

"Is this how Eurasia treats its allies?" questioned Lacus. The two soldiers behind the lieutenant began to raise their rifles.

"No stop!" said Flay. "What they're saying is the truth! They're the pilots!"

"Flay!" said Tolle quietly, trying to stop her.

"That's enough," said the lieutenant, even though he was still restrained by the two Coordinators. "Will you kids give it a rest?"

But Flay was fed up; she'd always been somewhat scared of Lacus for being a Coordinator, and never really known Kira, but the situation was enough that she didn't even care that they were Coordinators anymore—more importantly, right now, they were the people who'd protected the ship and they were being threatened for defending others. Not only that, but she was frustrated with the treatment they'd all been getting from these Eurasian bastards, and at this point, she even realized why.

Flay had a gift for understanding the human psyche, even if she didn't really recognize it herself. Ordinarily, that would've kept her restrained by fear of the consequences of what she was about to say… but she was frankly too irritated to care.

"Are you really that _stupid_?" demanded Flay, shocking _everyone_ into silence. Kira and Lacus nearly lost their grip on the lieutenant, but he was as frozen as the rest of them. "Open your eyes and look at Lacus! Do you think that sort of hair color occurs in Naturals? I realize that you're a bunch of morons taking your own allies prisoner to try and advance your own positions without having to go out there and get involved in the war, but I'd expect reaching your position to require at least enough intelligence to recognize a clear sign of a Coordinator when you see her and be able to extrapolate the truth from that!"

Flay panted as everyone stared at her in shock, trying to get their brains to catch up to what had just happened. Sai and Miriallia were especially shocked, being the ones who knew her best.

"They're Coordinators?" muttered Garcia as he stood back up after a moment. Granted, now that he looked, he realized the redhead had a point about Lacus—that hair was definitely natural, and you simply didn't see that in actual Naturals.

Garcia motioned to the soldiers, who came over to "escort" Kira and Lacus out of the mess hall, but before they could start moving, Garcia added another command.

"The girl too," he said, looking at Flay. Whatever bravado she'd had vanished in an instant as she was grabbed by one of the soldiers; Kira and Lacus started, but the rifles pointed in their direction convinced them not to do anything as the three were forcefully escorted out of the mess hall.

"Now why'd she have to go and say that?" muttered Tolle.

"We were all thinking it," said Arnold quietly. "She has a point though; there's no doubt anymore about what the Eurasians are up to." He looked around. "If it were just us, I'd say we should sit tight for awhile and see what happens, but with all these refugees, we can't do that."

"Do you have a plan to get out of this?" asked Sai quietly, not wanting the guards outside to overhear.

"Not yet, but I'm working on it," said Arnold.

* * *

"You want us to remove the OS locks, right?" asked Kira as he, Lacus and Flay entered the hangar, with one soldier still holding a gun to Flay, who was shaking with fear. The Artemis engineers all began whispering to each other, shocked to see the apparent identity of the pilots.

"For starters," said Garcia, smiling in a manner that reminded the two Coordinators of a wolf staring down its next meal, "but I imagine you're capable of doing many other things."

"What do you mean?" asked Kira, eyes narrowing.

"For example," said Garcia, looking up at the Strike, "you could analyze this machine's design and build more like it. Or perhaps you could even come up with a weapon that's effective against this type of mobile suit."

"Look, we're nothing more than civilian students," said Kira, though he was lying in regards to Lacus. "We're not soldiers, and we're not some military contractors. There's no reason why we have to do _any_ of those things."

"But you're already traitors to your fellow Coordinators, are you not?" said Garcia, smiling.

"Us? Traitors?" said Kira.

"I don't know what your reasons were," said Garcia. "But regardless, you did betray your own people, and so by rights…"

"You're wrong!" said Kira. "We did it cause…"

"Being Coordinators siding with the Earth Forces makes you two very valuable," interrupted Garcia. "There's nothing to worry about, I assure you that someone like yourselves could be made welcome, even in Eurasia. But if you still don't want to cooperate…" He looked pointedly at Flay.

Not willing to put her in any danger, the two knew they had to concede. Lacus quickly tried to calculate how best to get Flay out of this, wondering if there was anything in that book she'd gotten last Christmas that could help her out here.

"Kira's the one who put the locks on the OS's," said Lacus. "I'm afraid I won't be able to remove the lock from either machine." That was a lie, actually; Kira had made sure she could unlock the OS's if necessary.

"Very well then, start with this one," said Garcia, motioning towards the Strike. Kira, recognizing the delaying tactic, climbed up to the Strike and clambered into the cockpit, getting to work on the OS, while two soldiers stood just outside, rifles trained on the two girls. On the outside, Lacus remained calm, but inside, she was panicking nearly as much as Flay seemed to be.

_Okay Lacus… __**now**__ what?_

* * *

Outside Artemis, the Blitz had moved into position. Nicol hefted the Trikeros offensive shield, which was armed with a beam rifle, beam saber, and three lancer darts, and took aim at the asteroid.

He fired, and saw Artemis shake in a satisfying manner.

After firing off over a dozen more shots, Nicol saw one of the umbrella emitters rise into position.

"There it is," he said softly. "Strike at what is weak!" He activated the Trikeros saber, deactivated Mirage Colloid, and flew in, hacking the emitter in two.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"_Sir, mobile suit in our defense perimeter!_" came the report over Garcia's radio. "_Our reflectors are being destroyed!_"

"How can that be?" questioned Garcia angrily. Up on the catwalk by the Strike, Kira and Lacus heard the entire exchange, but Flay only caught Garcia's end of it.

"They cut through the umbrella? That's impossible!" shouted Garcia as the tremors grew worse.

"Commandant!" said the lieutenant, his worry obvious. Kira shared a quick look with Lacus, and the two gave slight nods. Kira kicked the engineer out of the cockpit, angling it so the engineer crashed into the soldier next to Flay, while Lacus slammed her elbow into the stomach of the soldier holding the rifle on her. She grabbed Flay, who'd given a small squeal of fright when the two attacked, and dragged the redhead into the Strike's cockpit before Kira closed the hatch.

Sufficed to say, it was suddenly quite cramped in the cockpit, with Kira practically pinned in the seat by the two girls (which, under other circumstances, wouldn't be a bad place to be). However, there was only a very small amount of gravity created by the slight rotation of the fortress, so they were both even lighter than normal, and Kira was able to squeeze himself to the right of the cockpit seat before reaching out and helping Lacus settle in the seat and gently pushing Flay to the left of the seat.

"The OS is tailored to you Lacus, so it's best for you to take control," he said before looking to Flay. "Are you alright?"

"Y-y-yes!" squeaked Flay.

"You traitors!" shouted Garcia up at them as the Strike began to move.

"_We're under attack, aren't we?_" said Lacus. "_We don't have time for your nonsense!_"

"Twerps…" muttered Garcia as he ran out of the hangar.

Lacus moved the Strike onto the catapult, and sent the signal to attach the Sword Striker. Within Artemis, heavy firepower wasn't something they would need.

As soon as the Sword Striker was attached, Lacus activated the PS armor, and launched the Strike.

"Sorry to drag you into this Flay," she said.

The redhead was a bit too scared to respond.

* * *

In the mess hall, Arnold saw the opportunity, and approached the Eurasian soldiers.

"Why is the alarm going off?" he asked them.

"Well, uh, it's probably…" started one of them.

"You're not even sure?!" interrupted Arnold as other crewmembers assembled around him. "Then don't you think you should go and ask? Whatever you might think, we're obviously under attack!" With that, Arnold pushed past them and began making his way to the bridge.

"Stop!" ordered the Eurasian soldier, leveling his rifle at Arnold's back with his companion, but Sai and several other bridge operators jumped out of the mess hall and pinned them to the ground.

"Sorry about this," said Tolle, "but you've given us no choice!" He paused. "Actually, no, I'm really _not_ sorry."

As Arnold reached the bridge, he saw the Eurasian personnel leaving it, and outside the bridge, one could see the EVA Eurasian soldiers moving away from the ship. Arnold rushed to his station.

"Start up the engines," he ordered as the rest of the bridge crew started to rush in; some small part of him wondered what they'd done with the guards.

"What about the officers?" asked Pal as they started to take their stations as well.

"We're a sitting duck if we don't act quickly," said Arnold.

To the surprise of everyone present, the door opened suddenly, and Murrue, Mu, and Natarle rushed in.

"Heh, excellent work kids!" said Mu, putting a hand on Sai and Miriallia's heads, as Murrue and Natarle took their seats.

"What's with this fortress anyway?" asked Sai.

"We can't maneuver while we're in here," said Murrue, ignoring him. "Launch the _Archangel_ and ease out of port."

As the _Archangel_ broke away from the docking clamps, the Strike battled the Blitz just outside, and dozens of Moebiuses were launched to intercept the Buster and a GINN, but the former effortlessly blew apart mobile armor after mobile armor, and the GINN didn't do too badly itself. One mobile armor went crashing into the command room after taking a missile hit from the Buster, throwing whatever organization the base had left out the window as they fell into chaos.

"Order the Strike to return," said Murrue. "We're escaping Artemis from the harbor exit on the opposite side!"

"Lacus, come back!" called Mir. "The _Archangel_ is launching!"

In the Strike, Lacus heard Miriallia, and pulled the Strike back towards the _Archangel_. The Blitz attempted to pursue, but was cut off by an explosion. Meanwhile, the _Archangel_, Strike standing atop the hangar deck, shot out of Artemis, escaping the pursuing prototypes.

* * *

As soon as the Strike locked back into position and the hatch opened, Kira angrily left for the crew quarters, with Lacus following, worried about him. The two completely ignored Murdoch and Mu, confusing the two soldiers. Flay, meanwhile, stared after them from her position right outside the cockpit of the Strike before pushing down.

_So… that's what it's like to be out there fighting… I need to apologize for doubting them…_

Lacus was quiet for the whole trip, trying to figure out what could be causing this kind of reaction in Kira. Soon, they arrived at an unoccupied set of quarters, where Kira threw himself onto his bed.

"Traitor…" Kira muttered to himself. Lacus blinked, suddenly understanding. She placed a hand on his arm.

"No, Kira," said Lacus. "Remember, your genes aren't what make you who you are." Kira looked over his shoulder at her and Lacus smiled gently. "You are you. We Coordinators have greater mental and physical growth than Naturals, but our emotions, the soul and heart that makes us human, are no different. Your people are your friends, family, and country. Not the people of the same genetic type."

Kira, looking into Lacus's soft eyes, saw the truth of them and smiled. "Yeah…" he said.

"Besides, I'm more of a traitor than you are," said Lacus. "Unlike you, I come from the PLANTs; the daughter of the Supreme Council Chairman. Even still, I haven't betrayed the ideals of my father or myself. Kira, you and I are fighting for what we believe in, and the friends we must protect."

"Lacus…" said Kira softly.

At that moment, a knock came on the door.

"Hey kids, you alright?" came Mu's voice. The two looked over at the door before it opened, revealing the Hawk of Endymion with Flay standing right behind him. "We were worried about you."

"Its fine," said Kira, straightening up a little. "Sorry about that." He looked past Mu. "Flay, are you alright?"

"Yes… I'm fine…" she said. "Listen, I just wanted to apologize… for doubting you. I hadn't realized how hard this must be for you."

"It's okay," said Lacus reassuringly. Shaking his head slightly, Mu turned and left the three teenagers.

As he did so, a thought occurred to him, and a small smirk formed on his features.

Hell, the two weren't real soldiers anyway, why not?

* * *

"Yo, captain!" said Mu as Murrue exited the bridge.

"Yes, lieutenant, what is it?" asked Murrue. Mu smiled.

"Just a little favor, if you will, that I'd like to ask of you," said Mu. Murrue blinked.

"Favor?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Now that the kid and the pink princess are officially volunteers, I figure we should go ahead and get them some better quarters. We've got plenty to spare, and they _are_ the star pilots here. I think they deserve to be a _bit_ more comfortable, don't you?"

"Yes, actually, I do," said Murrue, with a smile of her own. Somehow, she figured she knew where Mu was going with this—and was going to really enjoy taking him down a peg or two. "Well, I believe I know just where to put them. College-educated pilots like them are generally assigned the rank of ensign, so I think I'll put them in two of the ensign-rank quarters."

"What, you think they'll need that kind of space?" asked Mu, wanting to prod her slightly in his own direction.

"Actually, I was thinking I'd rather not have them uncomfortable getting undressed in their own quarters." Murrue gave him a pointed stare.

_Ouch_… thought Mu with a wince,

"We can put them right next to each other," continued Murrue. "They'll doubtless need one another's support during this journey, so keeping them close by is probably a good idea. Besides, we might as well keep both of those annoying little robots in one area." Now it was Mu's turn to blink.

"Annoying little…? Oh, right!" said Mu. "Now I remember! Haro and Tori, right?" Murrue chuckled at his reaction. "Geez, I wonder who made them… they certainly do a good job at producing annoying little appliances."

* * *

The _Gamow_

"Damn," muttered Nicol softly, leaning against his locker. "I can't believe we let them get away."

"It's not your fault Nicol," said Dearka with a small sigh. "The enemy ship has better speed than the _Gamow_, so once they got a head start…"

"I guess you're right," said Nicol. "Even still, after all of that… the General's gonna be disappointed in me."

Yzak snorted.

"I doubt that," he said. "We may have missed the objective, but we still managed to blow half of Artemis to dust, and you made it all possible. If anything, you've probably scored brownie points with the General." Despite what he was saying, Yzak was pretty pissed off at their target getting away, but there was nothing that could be done about the situation, and even Yzak couldn't deny that it wasn't really anyone's fault.

"Did you forget the General's _other_ nickname?"

Dearka and Yzak winced at that—they had ineed forgotten for a moment that the General, in addition to being one of ZAFT's most brilliant strategists, was also a rampaging blood knight, which could mean Nicol had just taken away an opportunity for battle.

"Yeah… forget what I said."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well, there you have it. Much like the original _White Queen_, I've made use of Solid Shark's Grimaldi Falcon, and this time, I hope to pull that character together a bit better. I also give some introduction to another major ZAFT figure, the General, but for now, that's all you'll see.  
**

**On the whole, though, the highlight for me was Flay. I love Flay; she's one of my favorite characters, so I admit to playing favorites with her, which is why I've given her a bit more spine than she probably had at this point in canon, but when you think about it, that's probably the only major change I've made to her here. Give her some more courage, and the confrontation with Garcia is exactly what I see a thoroughly fed-up Flay doing. Stupid, yes, but we've never accused emotional responses of necessarily being intelligent.**

**Not a whole lot more to say at this point, but things are looking up for me a bit. Hopefully, my situation will continue to improve. Just to remind everyone, I'll be continuing to update only every Friday until I reach at least the conclusion of the Desert Arc, possibly to the launch of the _Vesalius_ to Earth. If things work out, even for a few chapters passed that.**

**Please review. See you all next week.**


	6. A Moment of Calm

**Hey everyone. So, sorry this is a bit later then the others had been, I forgot to prepare the post because I've been rushed today. Still am, so there's not gonna be much of an A/N.  
**

**Just wanted to say, I feel this is where the story becomes distinct from the original version. For those who have read both, the difference will be _extremely_ blatant. Other than that, this one still needs a bit of cleanup near the beginning to mesh with the end of the preceding chapter, but that's about it.**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Six: A Moment of Calm

January 26th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Reconfirming status," announced Pal. "No enemies within a five thousand kilometer radius. It appears they've lost sight of us." Murrue sighed in relief. She really wasn't up to _more_ fighting, after the events of the past twenty-four hours, give or take.

"All that pandemonium at Artemis must've covered our escape," said Mu from the copilot's seat. He turned the chair to face Murrue. "So we should be thankful to them, if only for that."

"However…" started Natarle.

"Yes," said Murrue in agreement, "I share your concern. We're fortunate that the _Laurasia_-class is no longer able to track us. But we had so many problems before, and not one of them has been resolved."

The others on the bridge all heaved a unanimous sigh. Murrue was speaking the truth, after all. Supplies were short… especially water.

"So anyways, what happened to all the Eurasian soldiers on the ship?" asked Mu, glancing around. Arnold shrugged.

"Mister Murdoch said he'd take care of it," said Tolle, "something about tossing them out the airlock…"

Murrue and Natarle shared an uncertain glance at that, neither sure they wanted to know the whole story of what happened while they were locked up.

* * *

"Flay, are you alright?" asked Sai when he found the redhead sitting by herself in the nearly deserted mess hall a little while later.

"Yeah… Kira and Lacus made sure I was safe after we were dragged away… I was just talking to them a bit… I wanted to apologize, so…"

"That's good to hear," said Sai, sitting down next to her. "This has to be a lot harder on them then they really show; not only are they fighting other Coordinators, but they have friends who are living in the PLANTs."

"I can't imagine…"

"No, we really can't," said Sai. He looked at Flay, smiling slightly. "So, uh, try not to trouble them, okay?"

"Yeah… I understand."

Sai glanced down, thinking of how hard this must really be for Lacus. Kira had trusted Sai with the whole truth of who Lacus was, and it was a secret Sai had kept even from his own parents.

But the truth was, she was from the PLANTs, her fiancé had lost his mother in the Bloody Valentine, her father was the leader of the Supreme Council, she was a morale-boosting idol singer, and to top all of that, she had a close connection to two of ZAFT's foremost aces.

Given all of that, calling what she was doing hard for her may have been an understatement.

* * *

Arnold sighed as Tolle entered the bridge and took his station. With ZAFT momentarily out of the picture, Tolle would be able to handle flying the _Archangel_ for a while. Arnold could finally get some rest.

"Chief Neumann, please wait," said Murrue, following him outside the bridge.

"Yes captain?" asked Arnold.

"I was wondering if you could find Kira and Lacus for me," said Murrue. "I had a talk with Lieutenant La Flaga about it, and we agreed…"

* * *

"Excuse me? Mister Yamato, Miss Hirano, are you in here?" asked Arnold as he arrived at the barracks quarters they'd been using since the collapse of Heliopolis.

"Yes, something up, Chief Neumann?" asked Kira, looking up from where he was lying. Lacus was lying on the bed opposite his.

"The captain asked me to show you two to your new quarters," said Arnold. "Since you've been doing volunteer work, as our key pilots no less, we felt you should at least get better sleeping arrangements than what you have."

"Oh, I see," said Kira. He looked at Lacus, who nodded slightly, and the two stood up, rummaging around for what few possessions they'd had on them at the time of this all got started.

A short while later, Arnold led the two Coordinators down a hall to their new quarters.

"The captain assigned you quarters' right next to each other," said Arnold. "They're for low-ranking commissioned officers normally, but since you're pilots, she thought it was appropriate. Ordinarily, you'd be sharing with another officer of the same rank, but given the small crew compliment and the circumstances, you'll each have your own quarters. Lieutenant La Flaga will be just down the hall, and you can talk to him if you need anything."

"Understood," said Kira.

"Thank you Chief Neumann," added Lacus. Arnold gave a slight nod as they arrived at their new quarters.

* * *

A day later, repairs to the mobile suits and mobile armor were complete, and all three machines were ready for combat. Kira and Lacus, however, had decided to continue work on the Strike's OS. It was easy for Kira to tailor the Sakura to himself—though he continued to fine-tune the OS regularly—but tailoring the Strike's OS to Lacus was much harder.

"You seem to really be getting the hang of this Lacus," said Kira.

"Just another perk of being a Coordinator," said Lacus. "It's not that difficult to learn something new… guess that's why ZAFT has so many pilots that could be considered 'veterans' by Natural standards." Lacus paused in her typing and sighed.

"What is it?" asked Kira. He doubted it was about the matter of them being Coordinators. Lacus had made it clear that such a thing didn't really matter, in her opinion.

"It's just… I should be heading back to the PLANTs, by now," said Lacus. "I was supposed to be the Memorial Representative for the inspection of Junius Seven…"

"Oh…" said Kira, looking down. "Sorry about that… guess it _is_ my fault, in a way."

Lacus shook her head and smiled. "No, I don't blame you Kira," she said. "Le Creuset is the one at fault, attacking a neutral colony like that." Lacus frowned.

"Something else up?" asked Kira.

"Yeah… I can't help but wonder what it would be like if you were in ZAFT," said Lacus. "I hate seeing you fighting, but at the same time, watching it…"

"I guess I can understand that…" said Kira, "but I don't think I'd make much of a difference."

"That's not true!" said Lacus. "I've seen veteran ZAFT soldiers at work. The Le Creuset Team is comprised of veterans and 'elite rookies', yet you were able to fend off several of them using the Sakura, and went up against Le Creuset himself. The Sakura may be far superior to the GINN or CGUE, but for someone without any real training or experience, a performance like that is nothing short of astounding!"

"Well, I guess…" said Kira, scratching his head somewhat nervously. Lacus sighed.

"Look, all I'm saying is that your talent as a mobile suit pilot is unlike anything I've ever seen," said Lacus, "and despite my father's attempts to shelter me from all of it, I've seen quite a bit thanks to…" She trailed off.

"Yeah…" said Kira softly, looking down. He then looked up and smiled at Lacus. "Well, let's not concern ourselves with it! Why don't we go get something to eat?"

Lacus smiled. "Okay!" she said, reaching out and taking his hand.

* * *

"Is this our best option?" asked Natarle, looking over their current course to the moon. They didn't have the supplies to really make it on that route, at least, not with the refugees on board, and they wouldn't be able to ration for long before people started to snap. "Can't we look for a better route somewhere?"

"Afraid not," said Arnold, "if we chart a course too close to Earth, we'll have to cross the Debris Belt, despite that route taking us less time to reach lunar orbit."

"Suppose we navigate through it?" asked Murrue suddenly.

"Through the Debris Belt?!" exclaimed Arnold. "There's no way that's possible! If we attempt to pass through it at this speed, we'll end up becoming _part_ of the debris!"

"The junk heap that humanity made ever since they began exploring space," muttered Mu. "It's true; we don't wanna be a part of that." He paused suddenly, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Wait a minute…" he said slowly, "yes, the Debris Belt."

"Hm?" murmured Murrue, catching Mu's attention.

"Am I a person who can make the impossible… possible?" said Mu with a thin smirk.

* * *

A short while later, the civilian volunteers, who made up a full third of the current crew, were assembled on the bridge to hear Mu's plan, accompanied by Flay, who it seemed wanted to help out since all of her friends were.

"Supplies?" questioned Tolle.

"We can get some?" asked Sai. "From where?"

"Get supplies, that's correct," said Mu. His amusement was obvious to them all. "Or to be more precise, we intend to take them."

"We're presently on a course that will put us in the vicinity of the Debris Belt," said Murrue, continuing for the lieutenant.

"The Debris Belt?" asked Tolle.

"Now hold on!" said Sai. "Wait just a minute! You're not saying…"

"Extra credit to the bright student," said Mu.

"The Debris Belt consists of a wide assortment of junked items, drifting around the Earth's orbit," said Murrue. "Of course, this also means it has a fair number of abandoned vessels that have been destroyed in battle."

"You're not suggesting that we get our supplies from there?" questioned Tolle.

"There's not much choice," said Mu. "If we don't do it, we're not gonna last for very long."

"Once the _Archangel_ arrives, we'd like for you people to use the pods and help with the work outside the ship," explained Murrue. The volunteers and even Flay all frowned.

"We're not too happy about this either," said Natarle, "but it's the only choice we have. Our very survival depends on it."

"We will not scavenge around for things that belong to others," reassured Murrue. "We're not taking that much; only what we're in immediate need of. Just the basic necessities, that's all." She looked down, a sad expression on her face. "In order to survive…"

* * *

The _Vesalius_, PLANT Airspace

February 3rd, Cosmic Era 71

PLANT: Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology. A new type of space colony originally devised by George Glenn, the first Coordinator, and proposed in the thirty-eighth year of the Cosmic Era. Approximately one hundred and twenty of these seventy-five kilometer tall and fifteen kilometer wide hourglass-like constructs were built at Lagrange Point 5. Although intended as research and manufacturing sites, the design also allowed the PLANT colonies to produce lush natural environments that could be achieved no where else in space.

The PLANTs were primarily funded by the Atlantic Federation, Eurasian Federation, and Republic of East Asia, which would eventually become the senior members of the Earth Alliance. To maintain their control of the PLANTs, the sponsor nations strictly forbid the colonies from producing their own food, meaning it had to be imported entirely from Earth.

As time went on, fewer Naturals and more Coordinators came to call the PLANTs home. The colonies eventually became a new Coordinator homeland, and were referred to as such by their citizens. Anti-Coordinator terrorist organizations, such as Blue Cosmos, had begun carrying out acts of terrorism on the PLANTs, but the sponsor nations wouldn't allow the PLANTs to halt export for even a brief time to recover. This eventually led to a major energy crisis within the PLANTs.

The PLANT citizenry became increasingly dissatisfied with their exploitation by the sponsor nations, and began to fight back. The Zodiac Alliance, an organization created by Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala to try and free the PLANTs from the sponsor nations controls, was eventually reorganized into the military organization known as the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, or ZAFT. ZAFT eventually drove the sponsor nations' space forces away from the PLANTs. Tensions between the PLANTs and sponsor nations continued to mount, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations managed to secure one final meeting to maintain peace. Unfortunately, that's where everything really went wrong.

A terrorist bombing wiped out the United Nations leadership. Siegel Clyne, the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council, avoided the bombing through sheer luck, due to a shuttle malfunction. Sadly, this allowed Blue Cosmos "sympathizers" to seize control of the Atlantic Federation, the dominant power on Earth, and organize the Earth Alliance as a replacement for the United Nations. The first act of the Earth Alliance: declare war on the PLANTs.

The first act of war was the Bloody Valentine Tragedy. ZAFT forces repelled an Earth Alliance invasion fleet, but Blue Cosmos loyalists in the military had prepped the mobile armor light carrier _Roosevelt_ with nuclear missiles—and one of them was successfully launched at Junius Seven, the highest producing of the four PLANTs converted for agricultural production.

Two hundred forty-three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-one people were killed in that event. It turned a previous situation of active—but localized—hostility into full-scale war; the day was February 14th, Cosmic Era 70. It was the single greatest deliberate loss of life since the end of the Reconstruction War that marked the end of the AD calendar.

The PLANTs were effectively an independent nation now. That hadn't been established officially—and probably wouldn't be until the war ended—but the PLANTs had finally gotten what they were looking for: independence. Sadly, unlike the American Revolution, this conflict had degenerated to a battle between races, between the two branches of humanity, and as long as bigoted and hatred-fueled men held power on either side, the war wouldn't end until one side or the other was all but annihilated.

It was this nation, the Coordinator homeland, and these massive hourglass-like colonies that the ZAFT destroyer _Vesalius_ now returned to. Although repairs from the damage suffered in the brief battle with the Earth Forces legged ship had come along nicely, much of the port wing was lost entirely, and the _Vesalius_ would need still more repairs while in dry-dock—not that the repairs could be accomplished anywhere else.

"Picked up guide beacon," announced the _Vesalius_ sensor officer. "We've been instructed to enter dock number four. Match entry vector."

"Beacon detection confirmed," said the _Vesalius_'s pilot. "Course correction: zero point three, mark sixteen point two, delta. Turn about a hundred and eighty degrees, begin deceleration."

"Will you have Athrun Zala accompany you at the inquiry?" asked Ades as the _Vesalius_ rotated and began decelerating.

"Yes," said Rau. "He was present during the incident. He also has the capacity for calm and objective analysis." Which was, of course, the main reason Rau chose him over Yzak or Dearka.

"I understand that Orb is outraged and has been mounting a planet-wide protest," commented Ades.

"Ades," said Rau, almost admonishingly, "the problem should be viewed from a more important perspective: _ours_."

"Yes," said Ades.

"Hurry with repairs and resupplies to the _Vesalius_," said Rau, getting back to the solely military matter. "Though we've been granted some downtime, we're still racing against the clock, so it seems."

* * *

A short while later, Athrun and Rau were aboard an elevator of the central shaft of Aprilius One, the de facto capital of the PLANTs, heading down for their meeting with the Council. The TV screen in the elevator was showing a news announcement.

"_And in others new,_" said the newsman, "_the tragedy of Junius Seven took place nearly one year ago. Prior to a ceremony to mourn the lives lost, Supreme Council Chairman Clyne made this statement._" The screen changed to show Siegel Clyne, the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council. The ceremony in question was just one of many before the memorial service proper on the anniversary itself.

"_A most unfortunate incident,_" said Siegel. "_In its wake, it leaves behind only a profound sorrow we shall never forget._" Siegel continued speaking, but Athrun's eyes were drawn elsewhere.

Something was missing. Siegel's daughter Lacus should have been standing next to him, but Athrun couldn't see her pink hair anywhere. Instead, a young woman stood where Lacus should've been. Athrun quickly examined her with a critical eye.

She appeared to be a bit younger than Lacus, with a rounder, more innocent face framed by long, light brown hair with two bow-tied ribbons on the front locks, and deep, dark blue eyes.

He wondered at just who she was.

"Oh? This is a surprise," said Rau softly. Athrun glanced over at him, to see that the commander was also looking at the screen, and though the mask blocked Athrun's view of his eyes, he could've sworn his commander was eyeing the young woman.

"Excuse me Commander, but do you know her?" asked Athrun. Rau looked at him and smiled.

"Indeed I do, Athrun," said Rau. "Quite well, in fact, though it has been several years since I last saw her." He turned back to the screen. "She's grown well…"

"Uh, sir, who is she?" asked Athrun. Rau smiled, the expression somehow a twisted combination of fond and sinister.

"That, Athrun, is Reine," said the commander. "My daughter."

* * *

Chambers of the Supreme Council

"The Committee of the Supreme Council shall commence its special inquiry," announced Siegel within the Council Chambers, as Rau and Athrun sat waiting, "of the collapse of Heliopolis, a territory of the Orb Union. First, Rau Le Creuset; you shall start by delivering your report."

"Yes sir," said Rau, standing up, and walking forward. Athrun said nothing, but he was supremely grateful that the commander had been called up first. He was still reeling from the information Rau had offered to him earlier, regarding the identity of the young woman at Siegel's side during the speech.

Athrun only lent half an ear to Rau's report, mostly mulling over what Rau had told him, which was a fair bit.

Reine En Creuset had been officially adopted by Rau some ten years prior, when she was only six and Rau himself was eighteen. However, Rau had been looking after her for years before that, ever since she was born, in fact. According to Rau, he'd found her in an abandoned building on an L4 colony, and decided to look after her, even though he himself was an orphan with no family and only twelve years old. Athrun guessed that Rau was probably lonely.

According to Rau, the two had been close, but when ZAFT was reorganized into a military organization in 68, the two had drifted apart. The two had been fully estranged from one another less than a year later, and hadn't even bothered to keep in touch.

Athrun couldn't understand what led to the estrangement, though. According to Rau, Reine was a lot like Lacus: kind-hearted, caring, and somewhat naïve-acting. Of course, being that she was closely associated with Rau, Athrun suspected that she probably has a spine tougher than his new Aegis machine, again rather like Lacus. He hadn't seen Lacus like that very often; mostly when something, _anything_ occurred that even slightly threatened Athrun's childhood friend, Kira, who he was ninety percent sure Lacus had a crush on.

"I trust you can appreciate from the events you just witnessed," said Rau, "that our actions were not intended as an assault on Heliopolis, but a result of collateral damage, and, that the Earth Forces instigated the collapse. Thank you for your kind attention. That concludes my report." Rau saluted and began walking back towards the couch where Athrun sat. The end of the report had snapped Athrun from his reverie, and he frowned.

The commander was lying. Sure, there was his bout with the new warship, but everything else was ZAFT's responsibility. Rau had, after all, ordered D type equipment employed _inside_ a colony. It didn't matter that Orb had violated the treaty.

Attacking with the GINNs would've been fine. Waiting outside and attacking with D equipment when the ship emerged would've been fine. But going and fighting inside a colony with D equipment? That was just asking for the colony to fall apart, especially with one as old as Heliopolis was.

What's more is that Athrun _knew_ that his father, Patrick Zala, the Defense Committee Chairman, knew that as well, and was now withholding the information to get extra momentum for his radical faction.

"Tell me, Commander Le Creuset," said Patrick, standing up, "the prototype mobile suits of the Earth Forces. Are they worth all the sacrifices that were made by our _ZAFT_ forces in order to secure them?"

Athrun noted the way Patrick didn't seem to care about the civilians that were no doubt lost in the attack. All that mattered was his military force. Athrun had to consciously order his fist not to clench.

What was going on here?!

"To illustrate to you their phenomenal capabilities," said Rau, "I have here one of our pilots; he operated a machine and fought the last two that are still with the enemy. I'd like permission to have Athrun Zala brief you on all the details." Patrick glanced at Siegel, who nodded.

"I will allow Athrun Zala to present his report," he announced. Athrun stood up and walked closer to the council table, saluting briefly. The massive council room screen activated. Athrun had been put in control of it, with footage from the Aegis, other prototypes, and the _Vesalius_ and _Gamow_ put at his disposal for the report.

"First," began Athrun, "I would like to present this machine known as the Aegis. One major characteristic is its transformation system." The screen began to display the Aegis itself in action. "GAT-X303; its structural frame is fundamentally different from the other machines. This allows this particular model to transform into a mobile armor. While in this configuration, its main weapon is the Scylla, a five hundred and eighty millimeter multi-phase energy cannon. As with the other machines, it incorporates a feature known as Phase Shift armor, which we have yet to test properly in actual combat. At present, we are reprogramming the OS to maximize its potential, and, judging from its specs, this machine we believe is superior in both mobility and power to ZAFT's main weapon, the GINN."

The screen switched from displaying the Aegis to displaying the Duel during its fight with the blue prototype.

"GAT-X102, the Duel," said Athrun. "This machine was developed with close-range combat in mind and has a wide range of uses. It's believed to be the basis for the development of the other five models. Like the others, it is equipped with the anti-air vulcan system Igelstellung. The machine carries a beam saber and an anti-beam shield."

The screen switched again, this time showing the Buster.

"GAT-X103, the Buster," continued Athrun. "This machine was designed to be capable of long-range artillery attacks. It is believed that its main purpose was to provide covering fire from the rear, and to perform sniper attacks. It is not equipped with a shield; however, it has a three hundred and fifty millimeter gun-launcher, and a high-energy focused beam rifle. By attaching these weapons in different combinations, one can form a hyper impulse long-range sniper rifle or an anti-armor shotgun."

The screen switched yet again, to display the Blitz.

"GAT-X207, the Blitz," said Athrun. "This one has a feature called Mirage Colloid, whereby gas particles are released over the armors surface. In the eyes of the enemy, this machine becomes virtually invisible; this makes it effective for search and destroy missions; however one of the drawbacks is that the Phase Shift armor cannot be used while the system is activated. It's believed that this model was developed for blitzkrieg warfare. It is also equipped with its own weapons, Trikeros and Gleipnir."

The screen changed once again, this time displaying a white, blue, and red mobile suit battling the Duel.

"And finally, the two that got away," said Athrun. "Judging from our encounters with them, we know that this first one is a machine capable of various types of combat. This model's design allows for it to switch equipment with modules specialized in artillery and high-mobility combat. We can determine from Commander Le Creuset's skirmish with it that the artillery module holds a three hundred and twenty millimeter beam cannon of a presently unknown model; our assumption from the images is also that it has a one hundred and twenty millimeter heavy gatling gun, as well as two three hundred and fifty millimeter launchers of an unknown type. The mobility module appears to only equip a beam rifle, beam sabers and shield, but has greater agility than any of the captured units, and we further believe that this machine may possess additional modules that we have not yet seen. It is likely that this model has extremely high combat potential surpassing all of those that we captured."

The screen switched to a black and white mobile suit with a white backpack battling a familiar silver CGUE.

"This last machine appears to have combat potential rivaling the previous," said Athrun. "Their model designs appear remarkably similar, but we believe the backpack is permanently grafted to this model, limiting its adaptability. However, it does appear more agile than the other unit; in addition to the weaponry of its companion when equipped with the mobility module, we have observed it making use of an extremely large sword more than fifteen meters long with a beam blade running along its length, and a gatling gun is concealed within the right forearm. The existence of this model had escaped our notice, so we were unprepared for it when it appeared, and it is responsible for allowing the other unit to escape capture. In our last encounter with it, this lone unit successfully fought off all four of the models we captured, suggesting a level of combat potential we had not believed possible before the battle in question."

"That is all," concluded Athrun as the screen shut down to display the ZAFT logo once again. He saluted and walked back to the couch.

"They manufactured these abominations? Those disgusting Naturals!" said one of the Councilmen, a radical faction supporter of Athrun's father.

Though he remained quiet, Athrun questioned the man's sanity. He spoke of the prototype mobile suits as though they were some sort of disgusting monster out of a horror movie. In Athrun's own opinion, beyond the advanced technology and the intent for the machines to be used by Naturals, they weren't really all that different from ZAFTs own mobile suits.

"But they're only in the trial stage, correct?" asked Eileen Canaver, the youngest member of the council and the deputy leader of Siegel Clyne's moderate faction. "We can hardly consider six mobile suits a threat."

"But if they've come this far, their next step will be to mass produce!" objected Ezalia Joule, Yzak's mother and a major supporter of Patrick. "Are you suggesting we just sit back and wait till that happens?"

Athrun watched as the Council began to descend into madness and chaos. Then, his father stood up and began to talk.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away from L5, the _Archangel_ entered the Debris Belt, and launched Kira and Lacus in their mobile suits, and the civilian volunteers (joined by Flay and a few other refugees for the salvage run), along with Natarle and some of the mechanics, launched as well in the Mistral pods stored aboard the _Archangel_.

There was a particularly large piece of debris they were investigating in particular. But as they approached it, it suddenly became apparent what it was.

Everyone froze in horror.

"No, this is…" whispered Tolle. "A continent… it ended up here?!"

"The remains of Junius Seven…" said Kira, horrified. Lacus stared in shock, hardly believing this had happened; she was _supposed_ to be here, but… not like this.

And that just gave her another concern: who had been sent in her place… and were they still nearby to catch them?

* * *

A short while later, after everyone had gone out to briefly look through and confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt—not that there was one—that the ruins were indeed Junius Seven, everyone had gathered on the bridge.

"That water over there? Are you serious?!" demanded Kira.

"There are close to a hundred million tons of ice frozen over on it," said Natarle.

"You're kidding," said Kira. "You saw it for yourself, Natarle. That PLANT is where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. And yet you…"

"That's the only water we've been able to locate," said Murrue.

"Hey, nobody's jumping for joy over this," said Mu, "I don't hear folks shouting 'hurray water'."

"Lieutenant La Flaga…" said Kira quietly.

"Nobody wants to step onto that place if it can be helped," said Mu. "Listen, we're alive, guys. And if we have too, we'll do what it takes so we continue to live!"

"I agree with the Lieutenant," said Lacus. Kira and Sai's eyes widened in shock as they looked at Lacus.

"The people of that PLANT were peaceful," she said softly. "I'm sure they wouldn't want us to die simply because the only water we could get was from the exterior of the PLANT where they died."

"Lacus…" said Kira, softly. Then, he squared his shoulders. "Alright… then let's get this done and over with."

* * *

Chambers of the Supreme Council

The Supreme Council let out after Patrick gave a seemingly calm—but to some, like Athrun, Siegel, and Rau, clearly enraged—speech about the destruction of Junius Seven and the exploitation of Coordinators by Naturals. To those three, it seemed obvious that Patrick's intent was almost certainly the escalation of the war.

"Ah, Athrun," said Siegel as he spotted the ZAFT Red waiting outside the council room.

"Chairman Clyne!" said Athrun, saluting.

"You know, there's no need for you to stand on ceremony with me," said Siegel.

"Well, I thought it might be…" began Athrun, but Siegel shook his head, somewhat sadly, and began walking towards the massive Evidence 01 at the other end of the hall.

"Sir, if I might ask, where is Lacus?" said Athrun. Siegel's step faltered before he continued. "I didn't see her during the TV broadcast earlier."

"Lacus is missing," said Siegel, sadly. Athrun froze. Lacus was missing?!

"What? How? When?!"

"As you may or may not be aware," said Siegel, "Lacus has been leaving the PLANTs periodically to visit your old friend, Kira, keeping him informed of your situation."

"Yes sir, I'd heard a bit about that," said Athrun.

"What you no doubt weren't aware of," said Siegel, "is that when you returned here, Kira and his parents also left the moon… for Heliopolis." Athrun's eyes widened.

"What? You mean Kira and Lacus were…" Athrun trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

"That's right," said Siegel. "They were on Heliopolis when you attacked. I'm currently awaiting contact from Lord Uzumi, but the lifeboats couldn't have arrived in Orb more than a few days ago, and he is no doubt very busy. I suspect he is also looking through his own cabinet, trying to root out the ones who assisted the Alliance."

"I see…" said Athrun.

"Please don't mention this to anyone, Athrun," said Siegel. "I understand your father's point of view, but he's pushing it too far, and he'd no doubt use these circumstances and my daughter as tools for himself."

"I understand," said Athrun.

* * *

The Debris Belt

Before heading out to collect supplies, the crew had informed the refugees of where they'd have to be getting water from, and Lacus had suggested they make paper flowers as a type of "memorial sending". It was entirely volunteer work, and even Natarle had supported the idea.

_No one_ was particularly happy with where they'd be getting water (other than, perhaps, the children who were too young to understand what was really going on), and all of them had volunteered to help out in making the flowers; it was the only thing they could offer up to pay respect to the dead. Flay had practically taken the lead in making the flowers; she held a deep-seated dislike for Coordinators stemming from the way her father had raised her and their involvement in her mother's death, but she was as horrified as everyone else by the events of the Bloody Valentine.

When they were finished, Miriallia cast them into space over the ruins.

A short while later, the crew went to work.

Kira and Lacus were mostly running patrol and occasionally being called on to assist the Mistrals, but they were also keeping an eye out for anything else they could potentially salvage; while they didn't want to take more than necessary, their situation dictated that they keep an eye open.

"Hmm?"

It was Lacus who spotted a potential, metaphorical "goldmine".

"_Archangel_, this is Lacus," she said, "I've found the remains of a _Laurasia_ hangar pod; I think we may be able to recover some parts for the mobile suits."

"_Roger that,_" came Mu's voice. "_You have permission to go ahead and investigate._"

Lacus nodded slightly, firing maneuvering thrusters to bring herself over to the wreck. She drew the Strike's beam saber and cut open the hangar doors, then switched on the (literal) headlights.

What she saw shocked her.

The wreckage of six mobile suits filled the hangar, a full complement—the ship must've been ambushed. However, that also meant that it was filled with parts that, with some work, could probably be adapted to the Gundams.

"_Archangel_, the hangar is filled with wrecked mobile suits," she said. "There's a lot we can potentially salvage here."

"_Okay, understood. Go ahead and pick through it a little on your own; we don't want to spare the Mistrals until we've gathered enough water._"

"Okay."

* * *

Several hours later

All total, they managed to gather more than enough water, and more spare parts than they could've ever expected—not having been lost in direct battle, most of the internal parts of the wrecked mobile suits had still been in very salvageable condition, and there had been a lot of weapons for the GINNs and ammo for those weapons. They'd even recovered some equipment for the CGUE.

Unfortunately, the ammunition wasn't compatible with any of the equipment used by the _Archangel_ or the two Gundams, nor had there been much in the only vessel they'd found containing such ammunition. To top that off, the Sakura's gatling guns were the only current weapons using ninety millimeter ammunition, so finding supplies for it would be difficult, though Kira had brought a fair amount from Morgenroete when he retrieved the rifle and shield.

"So, what do you think we should do with these things?" asked Mu, eyeing the recovered mobile suit wreckage now taking up a good chunk of the hangar.

"Me and the boys will strip them bare, figure out what can be salvaged and recycle the rest," said Murdoch. "Hey, done right, we might even turn some of this junk into solid slugs for use as ammunition." His tone was clearly joking—making ammunition wasn't _that_ easy, and between his tiny crew and lack of proper equipment, they all knew it.

"I don't know anything about producing ammunition, so I have no idea," said Mu, playing along anyways to lighten the mood. Then, he got serious again. "Hmm, but maybe we could salvage the cockpits and turn them into training simulators."

"Now there's a more practical idea," agreed Murdoch. "Ah well, guess we should see what we can do here, but I'm sure that the kids will appreciate those extra weapons somewhere down the line, even if they aren't as good as the G-weapons' default equipment."

* * *

Early the next morning

"How is the work in the hangar coming?" asked Murrue when Mu stepped into the bridge. The ship was currently en route out of the Debris Belt.

"Surprisingly well," he answered. "Mister Murdoch is stripping those ZAFT machines apart fast; he's already gotten one of the cockpits pulled and has a few of the kids working on converting it to a makeshift simulator. If they can get it done, I'll probably see about helping build some scenarios for training."

"That would be a tremendous help," commented Natarle. "I know they don't want to be fighting, but for the moment, we all need them as good as they can be."

"Yeah, but those simulators won't let them experience what it's like to pull Gs," said Mu. "I'll need to take the kids out for some live flying. And there's something else too…"

"Lieutenant?" questioned Murrue. Mu shook his head.

"Just something Kira brought up with me earlier," he said. "I'll worry about it later."

* * *

_Vesalius_ Dock

Athrun arrived to board the _Vesalius_ just in time to see Rau send a trio of ZAFT pilots in green uniforms into the ship. The blond commander turned to face Athrun and smiled slightly.

"You're right on schedule, Athrun," he said.

"Yes sir," said Athrun. "Commander, if I might ask, why was our launch schedule moved up?" He'd been hoping to hold out long enough to learn of Lacus's fate.

"Two reasons," said Rau. "First, I'd rather not give the legged ship anymore time to recuperate than necessary. Second, I just recently learned that the Blood Princess will be returning tomorrow, and I'd rather not be here for that."

"I see," said Athrun, frowning. He'd been hoping to meet with her before heading out again in the hopes she might know something about Lacus, but apparently, Rau wanted to avoid her completely.

"I'm sure you are aware of the enmity between Falcon and myself," said Rau. "However, there is a similar enmity between me and the Blood Princess, one that is far less well known. I have been lucky enough to have not crossed paths with Falcon in anyway during our time here, but I'm not taking chances being near both of them; not at a critical time like this."

Athrun nodded.

"Very well sir, I understand," he said. "May I ask how repairs on the Aegis and Duel have come along?"

"Repairs on the Aegis are complete," said Rau, "but the Duel will take some more time, but we have also been given a number of spare parts, both to repair the Duel and for the other machines. They will require some work before they can be used to repair the stolen mobile suits, but we've also received an engineering team to handle it en route. Fortunate, given the unexpected schedule change, but your father understands the importance of our mission."

"Yes sir…"

With that, the two turned and boarded the _Vesalius_.

* * *

The _Archangel_

Two days later

"Are you sure about this lieutenant?" asked Kira as he again examined the information on the Moebius Zero.

"_Of course I'm sure kid!_" said Mu. "_Don't you trust me?_" Kira heard chuckling over the radio.

"Not really," muttered Kira. The chuckling turned to full-blown laughter as the Strike and Zero were loaded onto the catapults, Kira at the controls of the latter.

During one of the conversations in the pilot's lounge between Kira, Lacus and Mu, Kira had mentioned the weird feeling he'd gotten just before and during his fight with Rau Le Creuset on the trip to Artemis. Mu had been shocked to hear that, and after thinking about it for a short while, had suggested Kira take out the Zero for a practice run. When Lacus added that she could sense Kira in much the same way (Kira could as well, and had said as much, though they'd refrained from mentioning another person Lacus could "sense"), Mu insisted that both of them take turns practicing with the Zero's gunbarrels. He'd said he'd heard something about other Zero pilots getting similar vibes, and tacked on his theory that it was connected with the high degree of spatial awareness needed to properly control the gunbarrels.

Which brought them to the present; they had now exited the Debris Belt entirely, so there was now space to freely practice flying in a real environment instead of just running simulations, which were still being perfected. The systems on the mobile armor and mobile suits had been set to a laser targeting only "practice mode" in order to better facilitate the "live flying" training by throwing in some combative loops. Right now, Mu had ordered that they just take turns practicing in the Zero with each other, but he would join them later on so as to train them in handling multiple targets and enemy attacks from multiple vectors.

Since they weren't really in a combat situation, Flay had been allowed on the bridge when she'd asked to watch, concern and gratitude for Kira and Lacus completely overcoming her dislike of Coordinators, at least where they were concerned.

"Kira Yamato, Moebius Zero, taking off," called Kira as he sent the command to activate the catapult, sending his machine rocketing out from the ship.

"_Lacus Hirano, Strike, I'm taking off._"

The two flew a few loops around the _Archangel_, giving Kira a chance to get used to the Zero's controls.

"_Strike, Zero, you have the go ahead to begin the exercise,_" said Mir.

"Got it," said Kira as he rocketed at the Strike. Lacus broke to her right, aiming her rifle and opening fire. Kira rolled the Zero to the left to dodge, and deployed one of the gunbarrels as he soared at the Strike, spitting fire from the linear gun and gunbarrel cannons; Mu had suggested starting out with only one gunbarrel, and using more and more as he became more comfortable with the system.

Lacus evaded the shot with some rather fanciful maneuvering, and Mu's eyes narrowed as he watched, something eerily familiar about what he was seeing. Lacus shot off another harmless "blast" from her beam rifle, which Kira only narrowly dodged. Lacus charged forward, firing repeatedly at Kira.

Kira activated the wire, pulling the gunbarrel back in, cutting off his thrusters at the same time, and activating the engine on the gunbarrel an instant after he started tugging.

The jerking of the wire gave Kira inertia that allowed him and the active gunbarrel to dodge every shot from the Strike.

Now running on instinct, Kira deployed the three remaining gunbarrels, ignoring controlling himself and the first barrel, and concentrating instead on surrounding the Strike and letting loose from all directions; several shots were marked as hitting, but not enough to disable even a regular GINN, much less a mobile suit with PS armor, though for the exercise, the PS armor wasn't being factored in to the damage calculations.

Kira then duplicated his earlier maneuver to pull the Zero out of the line of fire as Lacus sent several shots straight at him and the gunbarrels. Pulling entirely around, Kira blasted off with the linear gun as he charged at Lacus before deploying the top and bottom gunbarrels, the Strike and Zero beginning to dance around each other.

However, a moment later, it was over, as Lacus managed to hit the Zero with a single rifle shot, marking it as destroyed for the practice run.

* * *

Mu sat in his seat on the _Archangel_'s bridge, blinking in astonishment. Sure, the Zero was considered comparable to a GINN (or maybe even a CGUE), and Kira had some experience piloting, but Kira had experience piloting a _mobile suit_, not a mobile armor equipped with gunbarrels.

And even though Kira lost, he'd still gotten a fairly good grasp on the gunbarrels during his first run. Sure, he couldn't use them as skillfully or precisely as Mu could, but it had taken Mu a lot longer to reach Kira's level, and Mu had never even thought of Kira's somewhat insane strategy of using the wires—often more of a hindrance than a help—to produce inertia and help maneuver the mobile armor out of enemy fire.

"Well, I gotta say, I'm impressed," said Mu, smiling. "Keep up the good work kid, but don't forget to let the pink princess have a turn as well."

"_Yes lieutenant,_" came the panting voices of Kira and Lacus over the radio. Mu smiled as he looked back at the captain.

"The kid's scary," he said. He then sighed, scratching his head. "Damn it all, those two are making me look bad. Now what am I supposed to do? They're rendering me completely obsolete!"

* * *

"What, are you certain?" asked Murrue a few hours later, looking over Pal's shoulder as he manned the comm. station, since Miriallia was on her break and they weren't in a combat situation. Mu was currently tangling with the Strike and Sakura just outside.

"There's no mistaking it," said Pal. "This is a coded pulse of the Earth Forces 8th Fleet."

"Can you retrieve it?" asked Natarle, coming up from the CIC.

"I'm doing that right now," said Pal. Static filled the speakers from the station, as well as the screen itself. "Deciphering it…" muttered Pal. A voice filtered through the speakers.

"_This is the __**Montgomery**__,_" said the voice, "_of the Earth Alliance Forces 8__th__ Fleet advance troop. __**Archangel**__, respond._"

Murrue smiled in a combination of joy and relief. "They're under Admiral Halberton's command!" she said.

"So then they're looking for us?" asked Arnold as he momentarily left his station to join the other three bridge crewmen gathered around the communications station.

"They're still a significant distance from us," said Pal.

"But if we link up with them, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief," said Arnold.

Murrue nodded in agreement.

"Things are finally starting to look up for us," she said.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"What's the matter?" asked Rau, coming up behind Ades as the _Vesalius_ moved through space in search of the legged ship.

"We think they're vessels of the Earth Forces," said the captain. "I wonder what they're doing out here…"

"Hmm," murmured Rau, moving backwards to the tactical board, Ades following.

"If the legged ship were journeying from Artemis to the moon's Earth Forces Headquarters," said Rau, "what would they do?"

"So those naval vessels," said Ades, "they're waiting there to resupply, or perhaps escort?"

"They haven't detected our presence yet, have they?" asked Rau. "Don't lose sight of them. Follow them carefully."

"Yes sir," said Ades.

"And contact the _Gamow_," added Rau. "Send them this information and tell them to plot an intercept course. I want them to throw all the power they can spare into their engines—weapons, maintenance, _everything_ not necessary to keep the crew capable. Even with the addition of three GINNs, our forces alone will not be sufficient to defeat the legged ship."

"Right away sir," said Ades turning to go back to his seat.

* * *

Aboard the _Archangel_, everyone was relieved as the news of the rendezvous with the advance forces spread through the ship. Flay was especially excited, since her father was with the advance force.

The only people who didn't entirely share this optimism were the ship's pilots; all of them had a bad feeling about all this, and it was an intuition they'd come to trust. They were all intent on being constantly battle ready until they'd met up with the 8th Fleet itself, not just the advance force.

Rather than relaxing the way most others were, Kira and Lacus had practically doubled their time spent in the simulators, and Mu was encouraging them—the three had worked together to link the Zero up with the simulators so that they could all train together without having to head out again, even though Mu didn't really need the training, and quite a few people were worried the three pilots were becoming paranoid.

"Sorry we're late, Mr. Murdoch," said Kira as he and Lacus flew into the hangar to continue work on the Strike and Sakura. Murdoch was one of the few people who didn't seem to think they were paranoid, and was doing his best to keep their machines maintained.

"Oh, right," said Murdoch. "I made changes to the offset value of the standup geometry; I want you to check it over."

"Uh, sure," said Kira, making his way towards the Sakura while Lacus floated towards the Strike.

"Well, not that it matters much," said Murdoch loudly. "It should all be over soon, you two and these guys, that is."

_I certainly hope so…_ thought both Kira and Lacus.

* * *

**Author's Notes: For those not familiar with the original, the _Archangel_ crew actually encountered Reine instead of Lacus in the original version. Removing that was one of the major changes that came to my mind when I started this rewrite.  
**

**For those wary of OCs, I beg of you to relax. I know this is _fan_fiction, but that doesn't mean "OMG it's an OC it's evil mary sue this story is horrible!" I've seen some remarkably well-written OCs, even some of those that have been Mary Sues (thinking of Solid Shark's Grimaldi Falcon here; of course, it helps that SS rather enjoys torturing him these days). Some of these have been remarkable stories. And honestly, sometimes you need an OC to help create a bit of original flavor for a given FF.**

**I'm not trying to prematurely defend myself if I make a Mary Sue; I'm just asking that you all relax and at least give the OCs that do come up a chance.**

**Anyways, that's all I have time for. Please leave a review everyone, and I'll see you all next week!**


	7. The Awakening Swords

**Edit: Apologies everyone, for posting this late. I wound up being busier than usual after class, and forgot to post this before heading out to the FNM.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed Halloween; I got to spend it watching a depressing play that wasn't really my kind of thing but was necessary for class (to be fair, I did choose to see it yesterday so that I'd have more free time tonight and tomorrow).  
**

**Anyways, this is one of those chapters I've been kind of eager to reach. It doesn't change a whole lot from the original version, but gives us some moderate-to-large shifts from canon that I hope new readers will enjoy as much as old readers did the first time around.**

**It also introduces a small, but significant alteration from both canon and the first version. See if you can spot it before I state it outright in my opening A/N for next week; it's important, but I know how easily people can gloss over small details like this.**

**Anyways, that's all for now! On with the show!**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Seven: The Awakening Swords

February 7th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Archangel_

0837 Hours

Approximately ten hours after the initial contact, the _Archangel_ managed to establish direct video contact with the _Montgomery_, flagship of the advance fleet.

"_Arrival time at the rendezvous point with our fleet will be as scheduled,_" said Copeman, the captain of the _Montgomery_. "_Once we link up, the __**Archangel**__ will come under the command of this vessel, and we'll proceed together to the main fleet. You've almost made it. I wish you safe passage._"

Suddenly, the screen flashed, and showed Copeman, as well as a man in a light brown suit, with dark brown hair and a healthy complexion, sitting next to him in the flag chair.

"_I am Vice Minister George Allster, of the Atlantic Federation,_" he introduced. "_I'd like to thank you for your initiative in managing the civilian rescue operations. Oh, and one other thing. I was scanning the list of recently acquired passengers, and, of course, you can imagine my surprise and delight at seeing the name of my daughter, Flay._"

Murrue gasped slightly. She'd known the name Allster, but had been too busy and distracted to connect Flay to this man. It seemed that, besides saving a number of lives, the rescue of that lifeboat may have scored them points with Allster himself, which would be helpful to them, particularly if they ran into trouble over the presence of two Coordinator volunteers amongst the crew.

"_I'd be more than grateful if I could get even a glimpse of her,_" continued Allster.

"_Vice Minister, you'll have plenty of time to see her when they join us,_" said Copeman.

"That's Flay's father," said Sai, smiling slightly to himself. "There's no doubt about it…"

* * *

In the _Archangel_'s hangar, Kira and Lacus sat in the cockpits of their machines making modifications to the operating systems in order to further fine-tune each to themselves. Lacus wasn't anywhere near as computer and tech-savvy as Kira, but she was a quick study and had a firm grasp on what she was working on.

Lacus may have been an idol singer, but a few years back, she'd tried tackling a number of subjects, including computer programming, to pursue as a career, and in no way did she see herself singing for her entire life—she loved it, but that wasn't why she'd originally started to pursue the career, and she wasn't going to let those childish decisions dictate the rest of her life.

Murdoch floated down the catwalk, finally stopping in front of the Sakura's open hatch, looking in and smiling.

Kira, realizing he was there, pushed the machine's display board and monitor up overhead, as it normally was while inactive.

"Hey, something up?" asked Kira.

"No, just wondering how it's going," said Murdoch.

"Oh, I'm just making a few minor adjustments to match the off-set values," said Kira. "Not sure about Lacus…" He trailed off for a moment, then looked up at Murdoch. "Uh… guess it was unnecessary," he said, thinking about the upcoming rendezvous, despite his feelings that things could go wrong. Murdoch laughed, gaining Kira's attention.

"You just do what's needed," said Murdoch, reaching in and putting a hand on Kira's shoulder. "It's still your job till we've made it safely to the rendezvous point." Kira didn't mention his concern that he and Lacus would have to continue flying even after that.

"Plus," continued Murdoch, "we're not really sure _what_ will happen to the White Frame. It's supposed to be an Orb machine after all… I suppose you could always end up as its permanent pilot when you get back to Orb!" Murdoch laughed slightly at his joke as he pushed off. Kira looked down for a moment before he pulling the display board back down as he continued typing.

"Not a chance in hell…" muttered Kira as he continued typing.

As Murdoch floated away from the mobile suits, one of the hangar doors opened.

"Birdee! Birdee!" chirped Tori as it flew into the hangar.

"Lacus! Lacus! We have a problem!" came another robotic voice as Tori's eternal companion, Haro, bounced into the hangar as well. Everyone looked up in surprise.

Kira normally would've kept Tori with him, but keeping Tori in his or Lacus's quarters seemed to be the best way to keep Haro there and under control as well. Apparently, though, both robots were restless this time.

Tori flew into the Sakura's cockpit, and Lacus smiled as Haro landed on the inside of the Strike's hatch, rolling around. Lacus paused for a moment, then opened her mouth.

_Remember, on the day we decided to escape this despair,  
What lay before us was nothing but the passing wind?_

Lacus's singing voice echoed through the whole hangar, causing almost everyone to pause, listening. As she sang, Haro began swaying side to side with its "ears" flapping in a vague imitation of dancing.

_The more feelings I have to convey, the more my words fumble.  
Unable to tell you anything, the truth is I live in uncertainty._

As Lacus sang, her eyes drifted closed; Kira closed his eyes as well, listening to the soothing song rolling from his childhood friend's lips.

_If humans could somehow see tomorrow,  
Then we probably wouldn't have to live on our dreams._

Lacus trailed off, uncertain if she should continue. She hadn't sung since her last concert nearly a month ago; it was strange, since she didn't care about her career all that much. She sang because she loved it… and it was really nice to just sing for the sake of singing again.

In the Sakura, Kira leaned back, feeling more relaxed than he had in weeks. He'd missed listening to Lacus sing.

If there was one small good thing to have come out of all this for Kira, it was the time he was able to spend with Lacus, in spite of the grim circumstances.

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"This is the projected course of the enemy ships," said Ades, the tactical board marking the course with a red line.

"It's unfortunate that the Laconi and Porto teams are joining us later than scheduled," commented Rau. "Those vessels may be there to resupply the legged ship. We certainly can't ignore them." Rau smirked slightly, glancing at Athrun and the other pilots currently onboard. "Fortunately, the _Gamow_ should be able to provide support, though they may be a little late to the battle."

"Yzak will probably be irritable over not being able to get back into the Duel," commented Athrun.

"Well, I think the humbling might do Yzak some good, wouldn't you agree Athrun?" said Rau lightly. "Besides, the repairs on the Duel aren't complete just yet."

"The mechanics estimated another two days to finish repairs on it," said Ades. "Adapting the parts is not easy; regardless, the Duel cannot be fielded, and should not be considered in any of our battle plans. Mr. Joule can live with it."

* * *

The _Archangel_

Several hours later

"Radar's picking up silhouettes of three ships," said Pal, "identified as our escorts, _Montgomery_, _Bernard_, and _Law_."

"Finally… it'll be nice to have some relief, huh?" said Sai, glancing at Kuzzey sitting at the station next to him.

"Yeah, it sure would be," said Kuzzey softly… and then, suddenly, the sound of static came from his station. "What the…?!"

"Captain! High levels of N-jammer interference!" called Sai, seeing what was going on at his own station.

The entire bridge crew gasped.

"What? Are you sure?" asked Murrue.

"Yes," said Sai as he started examining the data and prepared to fire up the ECCM. "N-jammer levels are rising."

"Detecting a warship-class heat source through the jamming," called Kuzzey. "It looks to be on an intercept course with the advance fleet!"

"Damn it!" cursed Murrue. "Why _now_?!"

* * *

The _Vesalius_

"_The commander really has a knack for sensing these things,_" commented one GINN pilot as he launched with a Cattus five hundred millimeter bazooka.

"_Athrun, show us how that machine performs,_" said another pilot as he also launched, armed with a Barrus ion cannon.

"Yeah, sure," muttered Athrun as the third GINN loaded onto the catapult armed with its own Cattus bazooka. The GINN quickly shot out of the catapult, and Athrun followed a moment later in the Aegis.

Seeing the others ahead of him, Athrun did a fast burn after them, intent on catching up. If the legged ship did enter the battle, they'd need his Aegis there.

* * *

Earth Forces _Nelson_-class Cruiser _Montgomery_

Klaxons blared as the enemy alert sounded throughout the entirety of the _Montgomery_.

"Hurry and deploy our mobile armors," ordered Copeman calmly. "Load all missile and anti-beam depth charge tubes."

As he ordered this, the mobile armors deployed. The Moebius was once a high-performance machine, but thanks to the N-jammer, ZAFT's mobile suits hopelessly outmatched them. On average, it took five Moebiuses to bring down just one GINN. Fortunately, although the _Drake_-class to which the _Bernard_ and _Law_ belonged weren't normally built for carrying mobile armors, four had been strapped to the hull of each one and had now been deployed. The _Montgomery_ itself lacked linear catapults, but did carry four more mobile armors. Still, they were now effectively counting on the enemy being an average squadron with only two or three GINNs, _maybe_ four if they managed to stretch things.

"Heat sources sir!" announced the _Montgomery_ sensor officer. "Mobile suits approaching!"

"Now what's this all about?" questioned Allster. "How could you not have noticed the enemy ship until this moment?"

Copeman ignored him. "Lower bow, pitch angle thirty degrees!" he ordered. "Turn to port, yaw angle twenty degrees." As the _Montgomery _initiated the maneuver, Copeman turned to look at his comm. officer. "Send a message to the _Archangel_ to withdrawat once!"

"You serious?" asked Allster. "But then I…"

"What other choice do we have in this kind of emergency?" asked Copeman.

"But if we don't meet up with them, then I came all the way here for nothing!" said Allster.

"If that ship ends up being destroyed," said Copeman, "then it'll have been for less than nothing."

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Increased heat distribution ahead," announced Kuzzey. "It looks to be a battle around the advance fleet!"

"They're in a battle?" questioned Sai, glancing at Kuzzey's console.

"Dispatch from the _Montgomery_," announced Mir at the communications station. She gasped at what she saw on her console. "The message reads: 'Canceling rendezvous. _Archangel_ is ordered to leave the area at once'!"

It took a few seconds for that to sink in for everyone.

"Well captain?" asked Natarle.

"What's the enemy's battle strength?" asked Murrue.

"A _Nazca_-class," said Kuzzey. "Yellow… two fifty seven, mark… four oh two. For the others… matching thermal patterns… three GINNs and…" Kuzzey gasped, turning to look up at Murrue. "Showing thermal pattern match for the Aegis!"

Several more people gasped. Murrue sighed.

"Then we know exactly which _Nazca_-class it is," she said softly.

"Well captain?" repeated Natarle. The battle, they knew, wasn't going well for the advance fleet.

"But… remember who's on that ship…" murmured Tolle, looking back from his seat at the copilot station. Everyone was silent, waiting for Murrue's answer.

"There's really no guarantee of us escaping," said Murrue at last, "even if we did withdraw." She sat up straight, glancing around at her crew.

"Last time," she said, "we sought to avoid the enemy because we weren't ready. But I believe that this time will be different; I'm counting on all of you. Don't let me down."

Everyone gave her grim nods. Murrue returned the nod slightly.

"All hands, level one battlestations!" she ordered, voice loud and clear. "The _Archangel_ will provide backup for the advance fleet!"

"All hands, level one battlestations!" ordered Mir over the PA, her tone unusually professional. "I repeat: all hands, level one battlestations!"

* * *

When they heard the order, Kira and Lacus had practically flown out of their quarters and started up a mad dash for the hangar.

"Kira, Lacus!" called a voice suddenly, giving them pause. They looked back to see Flay running up to them.

"What's all this about going to battlestations?" she asked. "What about the advance fleet?"

"We, uh, have no idea," said Kira. "We don't know what's going on." He turned to leave, but Flay reached forward and grabbed the sleeve of Kira's uniform.

"It's… going to be okay, right?" asked Flay. "The vessel that my dad's on won't be destroyed, will it? Will it?" she repeated in a small tone.

"Everything will be alright, Flay," reassured Kira. "We'll be there, okay?" With that, he ran off, Lacus on his tail.

In the hangar, Mu had already boarded the Moebius Zero, and was moved onto the catapult. Kira and Lacus, after donning their pilot suits, arrived just as the Zero launched.

"There you two are!" said Murdoch, standing next to the Strike cockpit. "You're late!"

"We're sorry, Mr. Murdoch!" said Lacus as she entered the Strike and Kira boarded the Sakura.

"_The enemies you're up against are the __**Nazca**__-class, three GINNs and the Aegis,_" said Mir. "_Be careful._"

_Athrun…_ thought Lacus as the Strike was moved onto the starboard catapult.

"_Kira, Lacus, Flay's father is there with the advance fleet,_" said Sai. "_Don't forget._"

"Not to worry," said Kira, closing his helmet visor as the Sakura was dropped on the catapult. "Le Creuset hasn't deployed yet; if we move fast, we can probably take out the GINNs before he launches."

"_Any additional weapons?_" asked Mir as the Aile Striker was mounted on Lacus's machine in the starboard catapult.

"No," said Kira, "if Le Creuset intervenes, there would be too much chance of losing the equipment, and we can't afford that."

"_Understood; Kira, Lacus, you are go for launch._"

"Kira Yamato, Sakura Gundam, I'm going!"

"Lacus Hirano, Strike, launching!"

* * *

_We'll see each other again, dad_, thought Flay, still standing in the corridor where she'd spoken to Kira and Lacus. _I know you'll make it through this. Kira promised me._

And she believed in that—Flay had absolute faith in Kira and Lacus. They wouldn't let her down.

* * *

At the battle, things were even worse than they'd expected, with the advance fleet already reduced to only two mobile armors, and the _Bernard_ sunk.

"Valiant one and Valiant two, fire!" ordered Natarle. Pal immediately obeyed, blasting off two shots at one of the GINNs, his aim precise enough to successfully hit the small, fast-moving target with one of the high-velocity rounds. The solid slug tore straight through the GINN and back out the other side, shooting off into space as the ZAFT mobile suit detonated in a large fireball right before it would've fired a round from its bazooka into the _Montgomery_'s bridge.

"The _Archangel_'s firing," said the _Montgomery_'s fire control officer.

"They've come to help us…" murmured Allster in relief. Copeman slammed a fist into his armrest.

"They shouldn't have," he said through grit teeth.

An instant later, the Aegis fired off a blast from its Scylla, destroying the _Law_. Then, spotting the Strike, the red Gundam flew forward, transforming back into mobile suit form, and began firing with its rifle, the Strike and Aegis circling each other, firing several shots that just barely missed.

Fighting against the GINNs, Mu deployed his gunbarrels and surrounded one, blasting it to smithereens in seconds, but then the last GINN suddenly shot forward and closed right in next to the Zero. Mu brought his gunbarrels to bear and opened fire, but the GINN dodged and fired a round at the Zero, scoring a hit on the main thruster.

"Damn it!" cursed Mu. "I can't do much of anything, not like this." With the main thruster out, Mu was forced to bring the gunbarrels back in and use them to limp back to the _Archangel_, Kira covering his retreat.

The Sakura's rifle lit up space, but the GINN dodged and fired back. Kira used the Igelstellungs to gun down the bazooka round and let loose another shot from his rifle. The GINN evaded once more, but Kira figured he probably wasn't a good enough marksman yet to be all that accurate anyways… and if he had his way, he never would be either. For the moment though, that lack of skill was a hindrance. Firing off another shot, Kira shook his head, stowed the targeting computer, stored the rifle on his rear waist, and charged at the GINN, drawing a beam saber along the way.

The plasma blade flashed past the GINN, but the pilot managed to pull back just in time—he was obviously very skilled, outperforming any of the other GINN pilots Kira had fought so far and even managing to take down Mu in short order.

Kira was just about to make another strike when he got _that_ feeling again. He pulled the Sakura up, dodging fire from the silver CGUE of Rau Le Creuset. Kira's eyes narrowed—this was trouble. He'd survived and even pushed Rau before, but the Crucible of Yggdrasil had nevertheless dominated the last battle.

With Flay's father on the line, though, Kira knew he had to do better, and charged the CGUE while the GINN followed orders and returned to the attack on the _Montgomery_.

Nearby, the Strike and Aegis, both unwilling to drain more power pointlessly with their rifles, holstered the weapons, and Athrun instead activated the beam saber in his machine's right wrist as Lacus took hold of one of the Aile Striker's beam sabers.

The two charged one another, sabers clashing as each Gundam tried to overpower the other.

_Athrun…_ thought Lacus as she struggled to push the Aegis back. Slowly but surely, Lacus was gaining the advantage, forcing the tip of her saber closer and closer to the Aegis's body.

"Damn…" muttered Athrun, breaking away from the multi-mode mobile suit. He spent half a second considering options before charging back in, but just as their sabers were about to clash again, he activated the saber in his machine's left foot and swung it at the Strike's head.

Fortunately, Lacus had anticipated that possibility, and responded by firing her verniers, crashing the Strike into the Aegis. Although she might've been able to finish the Aegis then and there, she didn't want to kill Athrun, and surviving was a bit more important right now (he could probably retaliate before she finished him), so instead, she pushed off, gaining distance from the Aegis and sending it tumbling backwards.

The Aegis shifted to mobile armor mode and fired its Scylla at the Strike. Lacus blocked with her shield, but the force of the blast pushed her further away from the Aegis. Athrun charged, firing the Scylla repeatedly, and Lacus shifted to dodging side to side, swapping her saber out for her rifle once again and opening fire.

* * *

Meanwhile, the _Archangel_ opened fire on the _Vesalius_, a massive barrage of heavy anti-ship missiles and oversized beam cannon blasts that left the destroyer practically helpless, unable to fire back as it tried to evade and shoot down the barrage.

"What firepower," muttered Ades as one blast from the cannons grazed the starboard wing of the _Vesalius_, though the anti-beam coating managed to disperse the energy and prevent damage. "Fire a missile barrage! See if you can distract the legged ship long enough to bring our cannons to bear!"

As Ades gave the orders, the CIWS let loose on the missiles coming their way, but there were just too many to get all of them, and three missiles crashed into the _Vesalius_, one slamming into the front lower prong of the vessel, another hitting the port wing, and the last impacting near the port railgun, destroying it and leaving the bridge crew rather uncomfortable with how close it had come to hitting them.

The _Montgomery_ was now doing much better for itself—although they'd lost all of their mobile armors, they were now dealing with only a single GINN, and the cruiser had enough firepower to deter and possibly even destroy it.

That didn't mean Copeman wouldn't scold Murrue for disobeying orders later, but he supposed that would be the extent of it.

Unfortunately, the GINN suddenly managed to land a shot on a decidedly… "inconvenient" location.

"Main turret's been hit!" announced the fire control officer.

"This is just intolerable!" exclaimed Allster. "What on Earth do your people think they're doing? Why can't they shoot down that single GINN?"

"Vice Minister," said Copeman, turning to look at Allster, "proceed to the lifepod."

"What?"

"You are on my ship and subject to my authority," said Copeman. "Proceed to the lifepod; the _Archangel_ will survive, so if the _Montgomery_ is lost, they can at least retrieve you."

Allster stared at him in shock—despite his opinions, his own job and his criticisms of the _Montgomery_ crew's inability to take down the lone GINN, it did not sit right with him to just leave them to die.

"Vice Minister, that is an _order_," said Copeman. "This is just a precaution, but you are more valuable than anyone else on this ship, so we _must_ be ready."

Slowly, Allster nodded, to Copeman's relief. Truthfully, there was another reason for sending Allster to the lifepod: getting him out of Copeman's hair. In this situation, the crew needed to focus, and the opinions of a civilian who'd never seen combat were a potentially fatal hindrance.

* * *

Rau grunted slightly as he was pressed into his seat by the sudden G-forces as he performed a quick dodge of the Sakura's gatling gun. He soared back in, swinging his sword down on the Sakura, but Kira managed to raise his shield to block the attack, and retaliated with his beam saber. Rau ducked under the slash and lashed out with a kick to the Sakura's mid-section, sending Kira tumbling back, but he recovered quickly and retaliated with fire from the Igelstellungs.

"What an amazing mobile suit," muttered Rau calmly as he pulled away and retaliated with his shield-vulcan. A few rounds pinged off the armor, but Kira quickly pulled out of the attack using the Sakura's tremendous speed and retaliated with his gatling gun. The CGUE caught a few rounds on its shield, but was very quickly out from under the barrage.

Gritting his teeth, Kira stored his beam saber and drew his rifle once more, activating his targeting computer. He quickly attempted to bring the targeting reticule over the CGUE, but Rau was dancing about too quickly for him to get a good shot. So, giving up on landing a hit with his skill level, Kira just pulled the trigger whenever he got close enough—if he could just drive Rau away, it would be a victory for Kira.

What Kira didn't realize, though, was that the G-forces Rau was experiencing were beginning to build, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up, especially with how fragile his body was.

Unfortunately for him, the building pressure caused him to mess up his maneuvers, and for just a second, Kira's targeting reticule flashed red.

In an instant, a dart of white energy flashed across space and hit the CGUE right in the left shoulder joint, blasting the entire arm off and hitting the wing behind it. A few secondary explosions followed on the CGUE's torso in the area of the left shoulder.

Rau grunted.

"You've improved quickly," he said. "I wonder how long you can keep it up for… _Nemesis_. Ades, I'm withdrawing!"

His confrontation with Rau settled, Kira ignored the CGUE as it withdrew, and glanced at his power indicator—he still had over eighty percent of full power, which made some sense given that the backpack contained its own energy capacitor, being essentially just an Aile Striker permanently mounted with Phase Shift armor.

However, the energy pack for his rifle was depleted, with only two shots remaining. Not wanting to have to replace it mid-combat, Kira ejected the current pack, storing it on the Sakura's left hip and replacing it with another pack from the same location. Each one held about a quarter as much energy as the standard batteries for the mobile suits, enough for each one to give him sixteen shots with the rifle, without having to drain the Sakura's own power.

After that was done, Kira did a quick scan of the battlefield; Lacus appeared to be evenly matched with the pilot of the Aegis, and the two were now clashing, beam saber on anti-beam shield. The _Archangel_ seemed to have the _Nazca_-class's full attention, particularly since the destroyer was also attempting to recover Rau.

That left just the one GINN attacking the _Montgomery_. Kira began to move as it fired off a round from its bazooka that hit the cruiser's VLS, and he saw the GINN toss away the bazooka, most likely out of ammo for it, and draw its machinegun instead as it evaded the _Montgomery_'s counterattack.

Kira opened fire on the GINN, drawing the pilot's attention. The GINN evaded Kira's shots and returned fire with his own machinegun, forcing Kira to evade. As the distance closed, Kira once again swapped his rifle for his saber, and opened fire with his Igelstellungs and right gatling gun, taking a brief glance at the ammo counter as he did so—he was running low, but the other gatling gun was still fully loaded.

The GINN pilot managed to evade this and switched his gun to his left hand, drawing his sword with the right as he charged forward. Saber met sword, the anti-beam coating holding up despite the intensity of the beam saber. Both pilots opened fire with their automatic weapons as they pushed away, the Sakura unharmed but a few holes blasted into the GINN, though apparently, nothing particularly hampering.

Then, all of a sudden, several missiles smashed into the GINN, obliterating it. Kira turned his attention to the source, sweeping his eyes over the _Montgomery_ in a quick assessment of the damage.

A bit of smoke, a few weapons lost, but otherwise in pretty good condition.

"_Thank you for the assistance,_" came a voice over the radio—he assumed it to be the _Montgomery_'s comm. officer.

"No problem," said Kira as he did a quick burn towards where Lacus was battling the Aegis.

* * *

Rau managed to board the _Vesalius_, though not without difficulty, and the entire ship was shaking from maneuvers and nearby explosions.

"Ades, even if we take a hit, destroy the _Nelson_-class and retreat," ordered Rau. "We can't win this battle, but we can prevent a resupply of the legged ship."

"_Yes sir,_" said Ades.

The _Vesalius_ came around, its main cannons locking onto the distant target even as the _Archangel_ brought its own forward cannons to bear and the Aegis was forced to fallback under the dual assault of the Strike and Sakura.

"Fire!" ordered Ades from the bridge of the _Vesalius_.

"Aim Gottfrieds and fire!" called Murrue on the _Archangel_.

The massive two-hundred and twenty-five centimeter dual high-energy beam cannons known as Gottfrieds, the main weapon of the _Archangel_, blasted at the ZAFT destroyer, in tandem with the powerful one-hundred and twenty centimeter high-energy beam cannons that served as the main cannons aboard the _Nazca_-class destroyer.

The _Vesalius_ avoided a direct hit to the main hull, but as in the previous battle with the _Archangel_, it suffered heavy damage with both 'wings' being almost completely blown off from taking the hits instead, while missiles launched earlier against the destroyer finally closed in and blew apart the main cannons.

The Earth Forces _Nelson_-class cruiser _Montgomery_, however, was not so fortunate… and the vessel was gutted right through the mid-section. The damage and heat from the cannons caused a chain reaction that obliterated the entire vessel, even as ZAFT sent out retreat signal flares, calling away the badly outmatched Aegis.

The _Archangel_ crew and pilots ignored ZAFT as the destroyer limped away, all eyes fixed on the destruction of the _Montgomery_.

On the bridge of the assault ship, a red-headed girl cried out in aguish.

* * *

Kira's grip on the Sakura's controls tightened. He'd failed… he'd told Flay he would protect her father, and yet…

"_Kira, do you see that?_" asked Lacus suddenly.

Kira looked up as something registered on the Sakura's sensors. Following the sensor blip, Kira's eyes widened, and he activated the radio.

* * *

"_**Archangel**__, I just found a lifepod from the __**Montgomery**__,_" came Kira's voice. Flay, who had been crying on Sai's shoulder, suddenly looked up, hope shining in her tear-filled eyes. "_I'm bringing it aboard._" Fatigue was apparent in his voice.

"Alright Kira," said Murrue. "Lacus, you hurry aboard as well. We did significant damage to them, but who knows how long it will be before ZAFT returns." Murrue paused. "And… good work out there you two."

"_Don't worry about it,_" said Lacus as the comm. channel went dead.

"M-my dad," said Flay, "is he…?"

"It seems likely," said Natarle. "The only other person likely to be put on a lifepod was Captain Copeman, but he wouldn't flee the ship like that." As she said this, the Strike and Sakura reentered the catapults. Flay spun around and rushed out of the bridge, barreling down the halls for the hangar, determined to make sure that her father had made it out alright.

* * *

"Alright, popping the hatch now," said Murdoch, as Flay rushed into the hangar and the two exhausted Coordinator pilots emerged from their mobile suits.

The hatch of the lifepod opened… and Vice Minister George Allster stumbled out, panting.

"That was close…" muttered Allster. "But… I can't believe we lost Copeman… all of this…"

"Daddy!" cried Flay, tears of joy leaving a trail behind her as she pushed herself down towards her father.

"Flay!" exclaimed Allster, wrapping his arms around Flay as she crashed into him.

"You're okay…" sobbed Flay, clinging to her father's suit. "Just like he promised…" Smiling, Flay turned slightly to look at where Kira and Lacus were watching from the catwalk.

"Thank you Kira!" called Flay. Kira smiled slightly. "And Lacus? You as well!"

"Don't worry about it," called Lacus, thinking of how she'd feel if something had happened to her own father.

"Flay, who are they?" asked Allster, obviously confused. Flay smiled at him.

"Kira Yamato and Lacus Hirano," said Flay. "They're volunteers, from Heliopolis. They were piloting the mobile suits out there."

"What? A couple of kids?" murmured Allster. "How though? Only civilians and they can do that? Even trained soldiers should've had difficulty… even I know that…"

"They learn quick," said Flay.

"But, to put children in mobile suits…" started Allster.

"They were the only ones," said Flay softly, looking down. "Only Coordinators could operate those machines…"

"What?! Coordinators?!" said Allster, shocked. He glanced up at the pair, eyes focusing briefly on Lacus's distinctive hair, then down at Flay, and shook his head.

"Come on, Flay, I think we should talk," he said "I can meet with the captain later…"

Flay nodded, and the two Allsters left the hangar, leaving a confused trio of pilots as Mu floated over to Kira and Lacus.

"But… shouldn't he be meeting the captain first?" questioned Kira.

"Yeah, he should," said Mu, frowning. "I don't like this…"

* * *

The _Gamow_

Half an hour later

"So, let me get this straight," said Yzak, staring at the _Gamow_'s display screen. "The legged ship—not the mobile suits, but the _ship_—tore the _Vesalius_ to pieces?"

"_That's one way of putting it,_" said Athrun calmly.

The _Gamow _had just made contact with the _Vesalius_ a few minutes ago; the damage to the Le Creuset Team's flagship was extensive. They wouldn't be able participate in the next battle, so Rau had scheduled a rendezvous with the _Gamow_—which had been delayed by an encounter with a _Drake_-class escort ship—to transfer the Aegis and Duel over to the frigate, along with the engineering crew and parts for repair, providing the _Gamow_ with a force that should be sufficient for taking down the legged ship.

"_The enemy warship possessed far greater combat capability than we had anticipated,_" said Rau simply. "_Added to this, their pilots have improved a great deal, no doubt the work of the Hawk of Endymion, and they're not repeating any amateur mistakes from their first few battles; they are no longer green rookies._"

Rau turned his attention away, probably listening to a damage report before looking back to the camera.

"_The __**Gamow**__ should be able to put up a sufficient barrage to keep the enemy warship preoccupied, but while it does so, you'll need to preoccupy both enemy mobile suits and the mobile armor while sending another machine to attack the legged ship itself._"

"_We can talk further after the rendezvous,_" said Athrun. "_Unfortunately, the __**Vesalius**__ took too much damage to be able to actively participate in future battles without reaching dry-dock, and was sufficient for it to even slowdown the __**Gamow**__. If the __**Gamow**__ doesn't go alone, there's too great a chance that the legged ship will rendezvous with reinforcements, and then we'll have to wait for reinforcements of our own before even attempting to do something about them._"

"_Athrun's correct,_" said Rau. "_And Yzak… do try to avoid another __**incident**__ like the last battle; I'm well aware of your over eagerness, but it nearly cost you your life last time, and such insubordination cannot be allowed to continue, even if it is from the son of Ezalia Joule. Do I make myself clear?_"

"Yes sir," said Yzak through grit teeth. Rau nodded.

"_And, Dearka? The same applies for you as well. Nicol, I'll be counting on you and Athrun to restrain your hotheaded companions._"

Before anyone could reply to that, Rau cut the transmission.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"You two really outdid yourselves out there, you know that, right?" said Sai, smiling as he and the other volunteers crowded around Kira and Lacus in the mess hall.

"N-no, not really," said Kira. "We still lost the advance fleet…"

"And all Kira and I did was to keep the CGUE and Aegis occupied," added Lacus. "If anyone outdid themselves back there, then it was you guys… the _Archangel_ and her crew were the real heroes this time."

"Well, how could we really do any less after Captain Ramius said that she believed in us and was counting on us?" asked Tolle, trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, how could you live with yourself if you failed to live up to expectations given like _that_?" The other bridge volunteers chuckled.

"And you shouldn't be so hard on yourselves," said Sai. "We all saw what the Aegis did when we arrived, but you kept it away Lacus. And Kira, you managed to beat Le Creuset, and you helped the _Montgomery_ defeat that GINN. It wasn't your fault that the _Nazca_-class managed to finish it off. Still, if it weren't for you, Flay's father wouldn't have made it out; we may have lost the rest of the advance fleet, but you gave them a far greater chance than they would've had otherwise, and if we'd gotten there sooner, well, maybe you could've done more. But you did the best that you could under the circumstances, right?"

Kira smiled. "Thanks, Sai."

"But…" said Tolle, "I wonder what it is that Mr. Allster wanted to talk to Flay about? It sounded like he was awfully intent on talking to her before meeting with the captain. Even if she is his daughter, I'd expect a vice minister to place work a bit beyond that in this situation."

"Probably just because Flay was already… there…" said Mir, trailing off as Flay entered the mess hall, her eyes downcast, expression unreadable, head hung uncertainly. Everyone turned to look at the redhead uncertainly.

"Uh, Flay? What's wrong?" asked Sai.

"Huh?" said Flay, looking up and glancing around, as though only just realizing where she was. Then she caught sight of Kira and Lacus, and looked away.

"My… my dad, he…" said Flay, uncertainly, "he… isn't happy. He's actually pretty angry, about…" Flay bit her lip nervously. "He hates Coordinators," she finally breathed, her words causing all six of the volunteers to stiffen slightly.

Lacus had never really gotten along with Flay, mostly stemming from Flay's obvious dislike/discomfort around the rosette. But ever since Artemis, where Flay saw Lacus fighting the Blitz, the two had become somewhat tentative friends. Lacus didn't want to risk that, and like the others, she feared the influence this might have on Flay.

"It's so… ugh… it's so stupid!" said Flay, startling everyone. "I mean, you saved his life, you've protected the people on this ship, and he's gone off to the captain to complain about you, and is telling me to stay away from you and… ugh!"

This was a reaction none of them had expected. Flay had always cared so much for her father, held him in such high regard… and now, she seemed angrier with him than they'd have thought possible, and over _Coordinators_, who she had openly expressed her dislike and fear for.

"Um…" said Lacus, drawing Flay's attention, "you don't… you don't have to argue with him, or anything." Lacus looked down as everyone looked at her. "Not over us… you shouldn't…"

"Look at me," said Flay sharply, walking over and slamming her open hand on the table in front of Lacus, startling the rosette, who did as told.

"The two of you are my _friends_!" said Flay. "It doesn't matter if you're Coordinators, or Naturals, or whatever! So maybe I think it's wrong to have your genes modified, that doesn't change the fact that you two are my friends, something that has nothing to do with genetic modifications. And without those changes, you wouldn't be able to protect us. All of us would be dead by now, and if my father can't appreciate that fact and blows up at me over who I choose as my friends, then I can be as angry with him as I want!"

Everyone sat frozen, only blinking, as they all stared in astonishment at Flay. The girl had completely transformed from the spoiled girl they knew to an honest teenage girl who would stick up for those she considered friends, even against her own father.

Put simply, Flay was finally growing up.

* * *

Murrue sighed as Vice Minister Allster was escorted out of the captain's room, and she heard both Mu and Natarle sigh in relief as well.

The man's obvious bigotry had begun to wear even Natarle's patience thin, and she was a woman of astounding patience, thanks to her military-heavy background. She fully acknowledged that the Coordinator pilots were the only reason the _Archangel_ had made it this far, and while she'd had some reservations about them, that was because they were civilians who shouldn't be in this situation; she had nothing against Coordinators personally, and she'd come to trust Kira and Lacus with the safety of the entire ship.

"Well, least that guy's out of our hair for now," said Mu. "Man, can you say stupid? I mean, come on, if it weren't for those 'untrustworthy, filthy, monstrous Coordinators' who fought against ZAFT out there, he'd be lucky to be more than space dust."

"Agreed, but there's nothing we can do to change his opinion," said Murrue. "Fortunately, he's only a civilian. An influential one, to be sure, but he can't stop us from sending them out to protect the ship if ZAFT hits us again." She let out a sigh. "And here I was hoping that rescuing his daughter would give us his support if anyone wanted to make something out of Kira and Lacus piloting for us…"

* * *

The _Vesalius_

Two days later

"Sir, we've received a dispatch from the Homeland," said the comm. officer. Rau looked up from the tactical board, where he'd been reviewing footage of the battle, and nodded slightly.

"Very well; what does it say?"

"It's from Commodore Falcon sir," said the comm. officer. Rau and Ades stiffened. "It says that until further notice, we are under the command of the General, who has been dispatched from the Homeland to take command of the pursuit of the Earth Forces legged ship."

Rau bit back a curse.

_Damn you Falcon…_

"The Blood Princess… I'd been hoping to avoid working with her at all," said Rau. The masked commander let out a sigh. "Very well; send a return message that we acknowledge, and will place ourselves at the General's disposal when she arrives."

"Yes sir."

* * *

The _Gamow_

Two days later

"Sure, it's possible to catch up to them before they join the fleet," said Nicol, "but upon arriving, we'd only have ten minutes before were within firing range, and I'd rather not see what kind of firepower an orbital fleet has to work with."

The four surviving pilots of the Le Creuset Team (not counting Le Creuset himself of course) were gathered around the tactical board of the _Gamow_, planning their attack on the legged ship.

It had been four days since the recent battle between the _Vesalius_ and the _Archangel_. Even though the two vessels of the Le Creuset Team had rendezvoused not even a day after the battle, transferring Athrun, the Aegis and the Duel over to the frigate, the inferior speed of the _Gamow_ meant that it had taken three days to overtake the Earth Force's warship.

"You mean we'd have a full ten minutes," said Dearka smugly.

"I would suggest the cowards keep their traps shut," said Yzak condescendingly. Nicol's eyes narrowed.

"There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general," said Nicol calmly, but he was staring rather pointedly at Yzak. "Here are the three that affect you Yzak: recklessness, which leads to destruction; a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; and a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame." Nicol turned his attention back to the tactical board as everyone else stared at him in shock. "It's no wonder you scored so poorly in command abilities."

_If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him._

Yzak nearly flew off the handle at that, but Dearka's hand on his shoulder was sufficient to keep him from completely losing it.

Nicol had a bit of a point though—between the four of them and Rusty, Yzak had scored the worst in command tests, while Athrun scored the highest, only very narrowly beating out Nicol for best in their Academy class.

However, it seemed at times like Nicol had taken the lessons from the General more to heart. Regardless, Athrun decided to try and diffuse the situation by turning back to their attack plan.

"We've fought against the forces of the legged ship on several different occasions now," he said, drawing everyone's attention. "The ship itself is easily the strongest ever created. It dealt with both Nicol and Dearka well enough in our first fight with it, and the sixth prototype was able to beat Commander Le Creuset. The mobile armor is piloted by the Hawk of Endymion—a man who single-handedly brought down five GINNs at Endymion, including one of the Gray Demons, and went head-to-head with Commander Falcon and Commander Le Creuset, and has held his own against both. And the white and blue mobile suit pilot was able to equal me in our last battle. We can't underestimate these forces."

Yzak grit his teeth, feeling like Nicol and Athrun had stolen the spotlight from him.

"Doesn't matter," said Yzak irritably. "If we have a window of opportunity, we need to take it."

"I couldn't agree more," said Dearka. "The success of a surprise attack isn't determined by the actual time spent."

"We weren't saying we shouldn't make the attack," said Nicol. "I'm just saying that the window of opportunity is small and we need to be cautious, right Athrun?"

"Yeah," murmured Athrun.

"It'll be fine," said Dearka confidently. "Yeah, sure, it won't be easy, but so long as we can hold off their mobile suits and armor, the _Gamow_ stays safe, and one of our machines can get up close, we can take them out."

"So how do we do that?" said Athrun. "The way those pilots are improving, we may not be able to match them. And other than the reports of Nova, I've only ever heard of the Hawk being taken down by lucky shots."

"Looking at it from a practical point of view," said Nicol, "we'll want the Duel and Aegis to lure away the enemy's mobile suits. Meanwhile, the Buster should be used against the mobile armor. Dearka, think you can handle it?"

"Shouldn't be a problem," said Dearka. "The Hawk's a better pilot than me for sure, but he's in that outdated mobile armor; his weapons won't even scratch me, and his mobility has its limits."

"Good," said Athrun. "Captain Zelman, we'll need the _Gamow_ to provide long-range fire support at the beginning of the battle, but you should pull back if it seems like the legged ship is going to seriously target you; if we lose the _Gamow_, then we'll be stuck as well."

"It should work," said Zelman. "We'll definitely be cutting it close with the 8th Fleet, but this plan is the best we can offer."

"In the meantime, the Blitz should be able to close in on the legged ship with relative ease," said Nicol. "If I can get in close, the battle should be over at that point."

"Fine, we'll go with this," said Yzak. "But I want the white machine, got it?"

"Yzak, are you sure that's wise?" asked Dearka. "Given what we've observed, it would seem like the Aegis is better suited to fighting that machine."

"No, the white one is mine," said Yzak hotly. "That damn Natural… he's responsible for everything that's gone wrong since Heliopolis!"

Athrun sighed, and conceded. There would be no getting Yzak to change his mind about this.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"We'll reach the rendezvous point in about thirty minutes," said Murrue, smiling. "Well crew, we somehow managed to make it this far."

"Don't slack off on your monitoring though," said Natarle sternly to Pal. "Fleets are conspicuous; they'll draw the attention of the enemy. We don't want to get shot down because we relaxed a moment before we were safe."

"Yes ma'am," said Pal. Murrue shook her head slightly as she gave Natarle a reproachful look. They'd been on high alert for a while now, and while what Natarle said was true, if they didn't relax some, they'd all snap.

Besides, who would be stupid enough to attack this close to the 8th fleet?

* * *

"We've gone through a lot," said Kuzzey to Sai in the mess hall, "but we're almost there."

"Yeah," muttered Sai, poking at his food.

"So, you don't suppose they'll let us off anywhere but on Earth, do you?" asked Kuzzey. Sai looked at Kuzzey, confused. "It's just that… remember what Lieutenant Ramius told us?"

Sai thought back a bit, and realized immediately what Kuzzey was talking about. Just after first introducing themselves to one another, Murrue had warned them that they weren't likely to be allowed to just go anyway, having seen the Earth Force's prototype mobile suits. They'd have to wait for a decision from the appropriate authorities, though, before being certain about anything.

"Hmm, yeah," muttered Sai. "So, under the circumstances, wouldn't the fleet be considered the appropriate authorities?"

"Guess your right," said Kuzzey. "However…"

"However?" asked Sai, looking at Kuzzey.

"What do you think will happen to Kira and Lacus? Will they be allowed to leave too?" said Kuzzey. "They did get involved in a whole bunch of stuff…"

Sai looked down, frowning in thought, but then looked up in surprise as the pilots in question entered the mess hall. They only shared a brief look before the two went to get food and water.

"Flay!" exclaimed Sai, softly, as the redhead entered the mess hall soon after. The rest of them had seen very little of Flay over the last few days, with the girl spending most of her time talking with her father, or so everyone believed, since Allster himself had hardly been seen around the ship at all.

"Huh? Flay? What's up?" asked Kira as everyone looked over at her. Flay glanced at them before looking away.

"More… problems, with my dad," said Flay. "He's… refusing to leave his quarters. Doesn't want to wander around where Coordinators have been. He's just so… oh, he's just so stupid!"

"Should you really be fighting that hard with your father?" asked Lacus, tilting her head a little. "I understand that you don't agree with him. I happen to agree with you, about how our genes don't affect who we are. But still, he's your father; you should try to get along."

"No!" said Flay, shaking her head. "You're right, I still want to be family with him, but I'm not going to share his beliefs about Coordinators, beliefs I know are wrong!"

Kira and Sai both blinked. Flay seemed to be becoming increasingly vehement about her disagreement with her father over the treatment of Coordinators, and neither knew how long it would be before things got… ugly…

* * *

"Hmm?" murmured Pal on the bridge as he picked something up on radar. Then, he detected jamming.

"Radar wave interference," announced Pal. "N-jammer levels are rising."

Murrue and Natarle both glanced at Pal, gritting their teeth, and rushed to their seats.

"All hands, level one battlestations!" ordered Murrue as she took her seat. "Tolle, fire up the engines to maximum speed!"

"Yes ma'am," said Tolle, who was currently handling the piloting since Arnold was off-duty.

"_Laurasia_-class identified in one oh three, orange alpha," said Pal; as fire control officer, he'd temporarily run the enemy search & detection systems through his station while Kuzzey was off-duty. "Detecting mobile suit thermal patterns, matching… what?" Pal turned to look at Murrue. "Detecting Blitz, the Buster, the Duel and the Aegis."

"Damn it all," said Natarle, "and just moments before our rendezvous."

* * *

"_All hands, level one battlestations!_" came Mir's voice over the PA. "_I repeat, all hands, level one battle stations!_"

Hearing that, the four volunteers rushed out of the mess hall, Sai and Kuzzey heading for the bridge, while Kira and Lacus ran for the hangar.

A few moments later, Mu had launched in his Zero, and the other two had boarded their machines, and belted themselves in as they were moved to the catapult.

"_Kira, Lacus,_" said Mir, "_the ZAFT units are a __**Laurasia**__-class, the Duel, the Buster, the Blitz and the Aegis._"

"Duel, Buster, and Blitz? I thought we'd lost them at Artemis," said Kira.

"_The __**Nazca**__ must've told them where we were and transferred the Aegis over to them,_" said Lacus. "_We're outnumbered, and we don't have the technological advantage of the last battle._"

"Right," said Kira, performing a final systems check. "Miriallia, give me the anti-ship sword. Be careful out there Lacus."

"_You too,_" she said. "_Lacus Hirano, Strike, launching!_"

A second later, and Kira was once again holding the Schwert Gewehr.

"Kira Yamato, Sakura, taking off!"

* * *

Arnold rushed into the bridge, Sai and Kuzzey right behind him, all three throwing themselves toward their stations.

"The 8th Fleet will be meeting up with us in a few minutes," said Murrue as they took their seats and systems were rerouted to standard. "Just hang in there."

"Activate Igelstellungs," ordered Natarle. "Prepare anti-beam depth charges; ready aft missile tubes."

Outside, as the seven mobile weapons charged one another, the six Gundams activated their PS armor, and the four ZAFT machines clustered together, back-to-back, barrel rolling as they did so.

Behind them, the ZAFT frigate blasted off a shot from its main cannon, and the ZAFT pilots broke away from one another, the shot flying between them to crash into the _Archangel_.

"Using their mobile suits to conceal the firing position," muttered Mu, his grip on the Zero's controls tightening, "that's very cute."

As Mu, the furthest ahead of the three Earth Forces machines, closed with his targets, he deployed the gunbarrels and let loose with the entire arsenal, watching in satisfaction as they broke apart to avoid the incoming fire. Though none of them would've suffered any real damage, every hit would've drained just a bit more precious battery life to powering the Phase Shift armor.

The formation broken and Mu brought the Zero and all four gunbarrels to bear on the Buster—the only one he didn't have to worry about cutting him in two.

Taking aim at various targets of their own, Kira and Lacus pulled the trigger on their rifles, sending two darts of green and white energy lancing across space before they pulled the trigger several more times each. The three ZAFT pilots blocked with their shields as they continued to close with the enemy.

"Nicol, go ahead and get the ship immediately," said Yzak. "We'll keep these damn Naturals off your back."

"_Roger that,_" said Nicol as the Blitz broke away from the other two Gundams. As Yzak shot at the Sakura, Kira brought his shield up to block the shot, and the Strike and Aegis began circling one another, firing simultaneously, and missing by mere feet, just as in their last battle.

Mu, seeing the Blitz charging at the _Archangel_, tried to intercept, but was forced to break off the pursuit as the Buster combined its rifle and gun-launcher into the sniper rifle and grazed the Zero with the blast.

The _Archangel_ fired the Valiant's at the Blitz, but Nicol evaded… and then the Blitz vanished from sight.

"Captain, I've lost the Blitz," said Kuzzey.

"Its Mirage Colloid must've been activated," said Murrue. "Fire another spread of anti-beam depth charges and reload all missile tubes with anti-air shrapnel warheads."

"Fire anti-beam depth charges," ordered Natarle, echoing Murrue. "Stern missile tubes, switch over to anti-air shrapnel warheads."

Nicol fired the Trikeros beam rifle at the _Archangel_, but the beams never reached the warship, dispersed instead by the anti-beam curtain surrounding the warship.

"Calculate the Blitz's position from the shot's angle," said Natarle. "When you have its position, link the data to the fire control station. Officer Pal, when you have the data, open fire with anti-air warheads."

"Yes ma'am," said Kuzzey and Pal. Kuzzey ran through several console commands as he narrowed down the stealth mobile suit's location, then linked it to Pal's station as ordered.

"Firing anti-air warheads!" announced Pal as he let them loose.

The missiles blasted off from the _Archangel_'s forward firing tail-fin mounted missile tubes, and upon reaching their designated range, the outer shell of the missiles broke apart to reveal small, shrapnel-sized explosive-tipped darts that blasted away from the missile casing.

Seeing this, Nicol immediately activated his PS armor, releasing the Mirage Colloid, and brought his shield up, blocking the shrapnel darts.

"That's right, this machine once belonged to you," said Nicol, as much a remark to the enemy ship as a reminder to himself, "of course you know its weaknesses." With that, Nicol reactivated the stealth system as the shrapnel fire died down, immediately moving to a new position to avoid further fire.

Approaching the _Archangel_ so as to get through the anti-beam particle curtain the warship had released, Nicol's eyes widened as the CIWS turrets all began firing wildly on randomized vectors… a barrage of bullets numerous enough to tear any mobile suit to pieces. Nicol reactivated the PS armor, his only hope to avoid being turned into Swiss cheese, and began maneuvering away.

"You're getting on my nerves," said Dearka as the Zero deployed its gunbarrels and fired on him from several vectors at once. He emptied both missile pods, hoping the small, high explosive warheads would eliminate at least two or three of his problems.

As fortune would have it, he only got one gunbarrel, and the Zero tugged itself around as soon as it passed the Buster and blasted away with the linear gun, a shot Dearka only barely avoided.

"Come on, you're just one puny mobile armor," said Dearka. "Go down!"

* * *

_Athrun_, thought Lacus as she deflected a beam saber strike from the Aegis. _Why are you so persistent? If you'd just stop, we wouldn't have to fight anymore…_

Lashing out with the Strike's shield, she caught Athrun off-guard, sending the Aegis backwards, and slashed down her saber, aiming to take off one of the red Gundam's limbs, but Athrun shifted to mobile armor form and rocketed away.

"Ahh!" yelled Kira as he brought the Schwert Gewehr down on the Duel's shield, satisfied as the grey-blue machine was pushed back by the powerful weapon.

"Why can't you just go away and leave us in peace?" demanded Kira as he evaded the fire from the Duel's beam rifle. Growing frustrated, Yzak fired a grenade at Kira, but the refugee pilot blew it apart with his Igelstellungs.

"Blitz is approaching!" said Kuzzey as the black mobile suit weaved through the fire being spat at it. The _Laurasia_-class was launching a long-range bombardment, and while only a few shots got close, much less hit, they were enough of a distraction for the Blitz to catch them off-guard.

"What are the Strike and White Frame doing?" demanded Natarle.

"They're too busy battling the Duel and the Aegis," said Sai.

Nicol smiled slightly, in satisfaction and relief, as the Blitz landed next to the _Archangel_'s bridge tower. He didn't even need to aim, as he began firing away straight into the tower.

"Can't get him with the cannon," muttered Natarle. "Where are our mobile suits?!"

"_Kira, Lacus!_" called Miriallia desperately. "_The enemy's beside the bridge! Get back here!_" Kira's eyes widened as he looked at the side monitor, which zoomed in to show the Blitz firing on the side of the bridge tower.

"No!" shouted Kira.

"The _Archangel_!" cried Lacus at the same time.

If they lost that ship, then all they'd done would've been for nothing… the refugees would be lost… and without Murrue and their friends to back them up…

_And Flay…_ thought both Kira and Lacus, thoughts straying to the friend they'd nearly failed once before.

Within the minds of the two Coordinator pilots, jewel-like sapphire and amethyst seeds burst in a brilliant nova of light and color…

The Duel charged at the momentarily motionless Sakura, but Kira suddenly released the Schwert Gewehr as he pulled up and around the Duel, drawing a beam saber instead and using the white blade of frozen flame to gouge out a hole in the Duel's torso near the cockpit.

Yzak's eyes widened in shock before he grit his teeth in anger and the enemy mobile suit suddenly rocketed away towards the _Archangel_.

As Kira dealt with Yzak, Lacus suddenly also went on the attack, throwing her shield away and drawing her second beam saber instead. Athrun shifted to mobile suit mode and attempted to attack, but Lacus deflected his saber with her own and rammed the other one through the Aegis's face, pulling back slightly and spinning around to cleave her saber right through the legs of the Aegis.

Then, she broke away from the Aegis, charging towards the Buster.

Kira, sensing the Duel in pursuit, jinked to the left, up, and barrel rolled to the right, deftly evading a half-dozen shots from the Duel pilot.

"Stop it now!" shouted Kira, swinging his saber down at the Blitz. The black Gundam jumped away, but Kira shot up after him, slamming the Sakura's knee into the Blitz's face.

Lacus closed in on the Buster, appearing in Dearka's face almost faster than he could blink, and kicking his machine in the head, leaving him disoriented as she brought both sabers down on the barrels of his weapons, slicing both of them nearly in half.

"What the hell?!" cried Dearka as he pulled back, firing his remaining missiles only to see the Strike shoot most of them down with the Igelstellungs and then _cut apart_ the rest using its beam sabers.

Meanwhile, Kira viciously pierced the Blitz's shield with his beam saber. Sensing danger, he released the weapon, spinning around and dodging under a slash by the Duel, deploying his gatling gun as he did so and opening fire with it… right into the hole he'd gouged in its armor earlier. A small explosion rocked the enemy Gundam as the high-explosive rounds currently loaded in the gatling gun went off, sending the Duel flying away from the Sakura. The Blitz rushed forward and grabbed hold of the Duel as the Trikeros exploded with the beam saber still embedded in it.

"Yzak?! Yzak are you okay in there?!" cried Nicol.

"_It burns!_" came Yzak's pained voice over the radio. "_It burns, it BURNS!_"

"Dearka, Athrun!" called Nicol, pulling back and grabbing the Duel's shield to defend them from the shots the white mobile suit was taking at them. "We have to retreat! The enemy fleet is almost here and we've taken way too much damage!"

"_Ugh, damn it!_" said Dearka as he and Athrun pulled away.

* * *

On the _Archangel_'s bridge, Murrue sighed in relief as the ZAFT forces retreated, the Strike and Sakura landing together on the deck of the ship above the hangar.

"_Look at that, they're gone!_" said Mu. "_You two were terrific out there!_"

Panting, Kira and Lacus both looked up.

"Lieutenant…" muttered Kira, part of him wondering _what_ had just happened.

"_Wow…_" muttered Mu, "_no, you're more than that. You two are unbelievable._" Smiling slightly, Kira and Lacus closed their eyes.

"Not really," they said together.

"_The 8__th__ fleet is here!_" called Kuzzey to the bridge and over the radio, drawing the eyes of all three pilots up to the massive collection of blinking lights…

The Earth Alliance Force's 8th Orbital Fleet; at long last…

It was over.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Hopefully not having to rush this one out has kept me from making some of the slip-ups I did with the post of the last chapter regarding formatting. Anyways...  
**

**Who spotted the shift? It wasn't exactly subtle, but I doubt it's what you're all thinking (but I won't go into specifics, just to see who figures out the important bit on their own, though I'll admit there's a detail that will be important later... much, much later).**

**I enjoy giving Athrun the short end of the stick, and while I like him, Yzak is just so _tormentable_ at this stage; let's be blunt, from my favorite to least, the ZAFT pilots go like this: Nicol, Yzak, Dearka, Athrun. But we've been over that already.**

**Not much else to say; life's been coming together again, and I'm gonna see if I can't find some way to give me more time to actually spend on this; it threatens to peter out around Chapter 13 or 14. Maybe ad revenue if I can get high enough traffic on my site, though making money off of fanfiction rubs me the wrong way... (but thanks to the asshole Top 1%, getting any income is practically an exercise in futility).**

**Please review; I'm always making mistakes and I want to learn what they are so I can improve and/or fix them.**

**See you all next Friday!**


	8. The Choice

**Sorry this was late; I didn't get access to a computer after class until now, after the FNM. That's two weeks in a row I've been late...**

**The change last chapter was not caught by anyone; or rather, it was caught by everyone and by no one. The detail was Kira's fight with the GINN, which held its own _very_ well against him. That's the most important difference, the reduction in power disparity between Gundams and non-Gundams, even "outdated" GINNs. Moving on:**

**Here it is, and about time too. I've been wanting to answer some of the questions readers have had, and this is the chapter that does it. This chapter has a few introductions to it; the OCs have finally started stepping into the story. I don't intend for them to steal the spotlight from Kira and Lacus (though they'll probably do that to Athrun, but we've over my dislike of him, so that's no surprise), but they will recieve some focus like any significant supporting character would, and it will be a bit up and down, with an OC being important for one arc, then drifting out for awhile (think what Waltfeld did in canon, being central to the Desert Arc, but then disappearing until the final 10 episodes or so).**

**So, now that I've scared off everyone who goes "OC automatically equals Mary Sue/worst fanfics in existence," let's get on with it!**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. All original characters are either owned by me or by Solid Shark, used with permission.**

* * *

Phase Eight: The Choice

February 11th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Archangel_

The vessels of the Earth Forces 8th Orbital Fleet glided forward through space silently, waiting for the _Archangel_ to join their ranks.

"Turn about one-hundred and eighty degrees," ordered Murrue. "Reduce speed another twenty percent, and match velocity with the 8th Fleet."

As Murrue ordered, the _Archangel_ turned a hundred and eighty degrees, now facing the same direction as the 8th Fleet. The engines fired, countering the powerful warship's previous momentum, and beginning to move it forward, matching the velocity with the fleet as the flagship, the _Agamemnon_-class carrier _Menelaos_, sidled up alongside it.

"Is this really a good idea?" asked Arnold, turning the pilot's chair slightly to look back at Murrue. "For us to cruise alongside the _Menelaos_?"

"Admiral Halberton most likely wants to get a better look at the ship," said Murrue with a slight smile. "He has informed us that, later on, he will be paying us a personal visit. As you may know, he was the biggest supporter of the development project that produced this ship and the G-weapons."

* * *

"Civilians are going to be transferred to the _Menelaos_," Mir informed her friends. "There'll be a shuttle waiting for them to transport them to Orb." Since she'd manned communications, it was only natural that she knew that information.

"You said 'them'," commented Kuzzey. "What about us?"

"We'll be disembarking too, of course," said Mir, looking down at herself briefly.

"Yeah," said Tolle, "we may be wearing these uniforms, but we're still civilians, after all."

"What about the Sakura?" asked Sai curiously.

"They didn't say," replied Mir. "It'll probably be retained by the Earth Forces, but they may actually send it down to Orb with us."

Flay looked away, her thoughts whirling.

She'd seen all of this now… she'd gotten a mere glimpse of war, and it was terrifying; it actually left her wondering what might happen to the Earth Forces crew. She was worried about what might happen to them without the volunteers around to help anymore.

* * *

The _Gamow_

"How?" muttered Athrun, examining the footage from their last battle with the _Archangel_, the records taken from every source available—the _Gamow_, the Duel, the Buster, the Blitz and the Aegis. He had reexamined it from every angle, stilled and further examined specific images, studied it for hours on end… and still, he couldn't figure out what had happened.

The battle had been going in their favor. Sure, they were having trouble, but when Nicol reached the _Archangel_, it should've been over.

As it turned out, it was. Only not the way they'd expected.

The sudden shifts in the two enemy mobile suits were frightening. The pilots moved like they had eyes in the backs of their heads, sped about as if G-forces had no affect on them—even for a Coordinator, those maneuvers when the white one had dodged the Duel's shots from behind were tight and sudden enough to have caused trouble.

They'd danced almost literal circles around the four elite ZAFT Reds, each taking on two of them and completely trouncing them, inflicting heavy damage along the way.

Yzak was still recovering in the infirmary—the bullets fired into the damaged section of armor detonated, the explosions reaching the cockpit and blasting shrapnel into his face, shattering his visor as it did so; only an extra security block designed to slam shut when the cockpit was threatened with exposure had saved Yzak from the vacuum of space.

That was the only pilot injury other than pride, but there had been heavy mobile suit damage as well; in some regards, the Aegis's lost legs and head were pretty light compared to the others.

ZAFT had been working on mobile suit-scale beam weaponry for some time, so they'd been pretty quick in reverse-engineering the basics, though it was unlikely they could mass deploy them without a new model—if Athrun recalled right, they were powered via manipulator plug-ins, so ZAFT would need to either devise a new model with the plug-ins or start modifying pre-existing models with the plug-ins, as was the case with the CGUE DEEP Arms.

What this meant for the Le Creuset Team was that they could easily replace beam rifles and beam sabers… but the weaponry for the Blitz and the Buster were a little different.

Both of the Buster's rifles had been lost, and while they could easily enough replace the basic rifle and gun-launcher, they hadn't managed to replicate the combo weapon technology, meaning Dearka would be unable to use the sniper rifle or shotgun configurations.

The Blitz was possibly even more severe—its shield had been its main weapon, and they hadn't gotten everything together to reproduce it, so it would have to go into combat armed with conventional rifles and sabers. Since Nicol was right-handed though, he wouldn't be able to use a conventional shield and weapon simultaneously, so he'd have to forgo using a shield at all for the time being.

The Duel had also suffered some pretty severe internal damage—Athrun had no idea how long it would take to repair, but ZAFT mechanics worked fast, so hopefully not too long.

"Hey Athrun, what's up?" asked Dearka as he walked into the lounge and spotted Athrun working on his laptop.

"I'm still examining footage from the last battle," said Athrun distractedly, "and I still don't get it. Those pilots have been improving by leaps and bounds. When all this started out, we were better than them, but now they seem to be at least our equals… until something really provokes them. We all saw what happened. Those pilots… they just snapped, and suddenly had us completely outmatched. Four machines, piloted by ZAFT Reds, completely trounced by only two others, and these machines are supposed to be of comparable power."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Nicol as he entered the lounge behind Dearka. "I can't really recall ever seeing anything like it; the precise movements, agility and battlefield awareness… I think the General and Falcon will be interested in this."

Dearka snorted.

"Oh yeah, Falcon's gonna be _really_ interested if he hears about this," said Dearka. "He'll probably fly out here personally to check it out."

"Well, you know him best," said Nicol. He shook his head. "If we're to be perfectly honest with ourselves, we're lucky that we only took as much damage as we did. If they'd pursued, we would've been done for. As it was, we probably could've been beaten by Moebiuses."

"And _that_, is a scary thought," said Dearka.

"Yes, but it's true nonetheless," said Athrun. "The Buster's missile supply was all used up and its rifles were gone, the Aegis had lost both legs and the main camera, the Blitz was reduced to the Gleipnir, and the Duel was as good as pilotless." Athrun snorted slightly, shaking his head.

"The machines are impressive," he continued. "They definitely retained the most powerful of them. But looking at this, it's the pilots that I'm really interested in. Those pilots are anything _but_ ordinary. No normal pilot could possibly do what they did. Not even a Coordinator."

"Yeah, I agree," said Dearka. "That's what really worries me. Wonder what Commander Le Creuset will think of all this…"

* * *

The _Archangel_

In the hangar, Mu was floating about lazily next to the hatch of the Zero, where he'd set Kira to work fixing it up after the last skirmish, when…

"We've already hooked up with the fleet!" said Kira, popping out of the Zero and startling Mu. "So would someone tell me why we're in a rush?"

Though she didn't say anything, Lacus was wondering the same thing.

"I don't feel secure while it's still damaged," said Mu, shrugging slightly.

"The pilots joining us from the 8th Fleet are all wet behind the ears," added Murdoch. "If anything happens to them, we'll need the lieutenant here to sortie."

"Wet behind the ears" was a bit of an understatement; the 8th Fleet was large, and it was led by one of the most brilliant tacticians and strategists in the entire Atlantic Federation, but the pilots might have been even greener than Kira and Lacus, and in mere mobile armors, that was more than simply fatal against ZAFT's mobile suits. Though no one had ever voiced it, they suspected it had something to do with the fact that there were very few Coordinator-haters in the 8th Fleet; the soldiers of the fleet were loyal, and great believers in their duty to the Earth Alliance, but almost none of them felt the sort of resentment for Coordinators that was so common in Naturals, particularly those of the Atlantic Federation.

Kira glanced over at the two mobile suits in the hangar, his eyes eventually settling on the Strike.

"Yeah, but what do we do about the Strike?" asked Kira. "Is it really okay if we leave it as is?"

_That_ drew everyone's attention, and they all looked over at the mobile suit Lacus had piloted since fleeing Heliopolis. They had all but forgotten that it was impossible for any Natural to pilot it, the OS had been so heavily tailored to Lacus's specifications at this point that even many Coordinators would have difficulty with the machine. Though the same could be said for the Sakura, it was an Orb Union mobile suit that could very likely be discreetly delivered to Orb in an attempt to soothe relations with the neutral nation whose colony they'd helped destroy.

"Uh, good point," said Mu, "never thought of that. But I'm not so sure we should return it to its original state, since that would reduce its performance."

"Well then, let's hope we can get someone who can pilot it as is," came Murrue's voice suddenly. Kira, Lacus, Mu and Murdoch, who had all gathered around the Zero, looked up to catch sight of the captain floating towards them, a smile on her face.

"Uh, captain?" asked Kira.

"What's this? To what do we owe the honor?" asked Mu.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Murrue, landing on the Zero next to Kira. "I just wanted to have a chat with Kira and Lacus."

"Huh?" murmured Kira. Murrue chuckled slightly.

"Oh don't give me that suspicious look of yours," she said, "although, I can't really say that I blame you."

With a slight smile, Murrue pushed herself up from the Zero towards the catwalk in front of the Strike, the center of the trio of mobile weapons they had. Pushing off from the Zero themselves, Kira and Lacus followed her, landing on the catwalk a moment later.

"I've hardly had a free moment," said Murrue, "so I could never find the time to really talk to the two of you and, well, I just wanted to thank you two properly this time."

Kira looked at her curiously.

"I'm well aware that I've put you two through a great deal of hardship," continued Murrue, "and I'm truly grateful for what you've done for us." Murrue bowed in thanks, surprising Kira and Lacus. "I put a lot on your shoulders, and made you give us your all. I can't thank you enough."

"Uh, it's alright," said Kira quickly, uncomfortable with this show of gratitude. "Really, captain."

Murrue stood up and smiled at them. "The others may not actually say it to your face," she said, "but each of us is deeply grateful."

"The way things are going right now," she continued, suddenly changing the subject, "I imagine it will be hectic even on Earth. But best of luck." Murrue held out a hand to Kira, who tended to be the voice between the two of them when interacting with the actual crew. The two had always supported one another, and Lacus was possibly a better pilot, but Kira tended to stand out more, especially with the way he would always be the first to speak up if he disagreed with them.

For a moment, Kira just stared at Murrue's offered hand before reaching out and shaking it.

* * *

The _Gamow_

It had been over twelve hours since their trouncing by the legged ship, and they'd rendezvoused not only with the _Vesalius_, _Ziegler_ and _Galvani_, but also with the destroyers _Fallen Hope_ and _Fairchild_.

"I can't believe it," muttered Athrun as he stared at the two destroyers.

"They deployed her," said Nicol. "They actually deployed _her_ for this."

"I smell Falcon's hand in this," added Dearka. "It would be just like him; he can't get away himself, so he sends the Blood Princess out to get them instead."

"The _Fallen Hope_ is ordering full six-way communication sir," said the comm. officer. Zelman nodded.

"Put them on screen," he said. Everyone turned their attention to the screen as the faces of the four ZAFT Commanders appeared, along with the face of the _Fairchild_'s captain, Clyde Harlaown.

"_General, how good to see you again,_" said Rau.

"_The feeling isn't mutual Crucible,_" replied the General, her tone almost completely void of any emotion. "_I always thought you enjoyed being needlessly destructive, and I'll take the fate of Heliopolis as proof—I don't believe your claims about what happened for a second. But Ken asked me to take over, and to my misfortune you appear to be permanently attached to this mission._"

"_You wound me General; and after all the time we worked together…_"

"_You're a hell of a pilot Le Creuset, but that doesn't mean I have to like the situation,_" said the General bluntly, a bit of emotion in her tone this time. "_But, personal matters aside, we have a mission to attend to; as of this moment, I will be taking command of the pursuit of the Earth Forces prototype warship and the mobile weapons aboard it. I'll be counting on all of you, Commander Le Creuset, Commander Porto, Commander Laconi._"

"_Ma'am!_" said all three commanders, saluting the General even though she was formally the same rank as them, and at least four years younger than any of them on top of that—her authority was highly respected.

Athrun shifted uncomfortably though—he'd wanted to talk to her back at the PLANTs, but that was in circumstances where he'd felt secure in his ability to bolt; he'd known her for years, but since the war began, the rosette ZAFT Commander had begun to scare him more than a little.

After all, Lily Clyne, the Knight-General and Blood Princess of ZAFT, had never really cared much for her baby sister's fiancé.

* * *

Aprilius One

Kenneth "Grimaldi Falcon" DiFalco absolutely _loathed_ his job. Once one of the two most formidable aces in ZAFT, possibly actually better than his friend Lily, he was now stuck doing deskwork.

Okay, so it was actually a fair bit more than _just_ deskwork, but that was the bulk of what he handled now. Realistically, it was a task that Lily was better suited for, but hell, Ken would've had to fight tooth and nail to pull her from the frontlines, and then he'd have to worry about her love of combat taking over and bringing her down on him for more "spars." Oh, they were harmless, and he figured he could win most of them, but dealing with them would've been more trouble than it was worth.

Besides, this let him run his "network" better, and he honestly believed that he could do a lot more good with that than he could just by fighting on the frontlines to bring the war to the sort of close he desired. Lily could more than pick up the slack there, but only Ken could do the job he was currently working at.

Surprisingly for one of ZAFT's foremost aces, Ken was only seventeen, the youngest of the infamous Griffon Team comprised of the top six ZAFT aces at the start of the war. He stood a hundred and seventy-six centimeters tall, had a somewhat slight frame, brown hair and a single blue right eye—his left eye was lost more than half a year ago in the to the same wound that left him with a nasty scar running diagonally across the left socket, which was covered by a black eye patch.

"Boss?"

Ken looked up from the reports on his desk, grateful for the interruption (not that he'd show it), and found his eye focused on the man who had just given him a temporary reprieve from this horrible, _horrible_ job.

Lance "Sparky" Cooper was Ken's favored lieutenant, though he was three years older than his former commander. He was also far larger, over a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with wide shoulders and powerful muscles, and a pronounced, continuous facial tic from an electrical incident in his past, hence the nickname. He was wearing a ZAFT Red uniform with a gray feather emblem on the collar and carried a katana sheathed through his belt, one of the symbols of the Gray Demons—Ken had his own, hanging on the wall of his office behind him.

"Hello Sparky," said Ken calmly. "Is something the matter? I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon."

"We got back early Boss," said Sparky with a slight frown. "That convoy from Murakumo Industries only had a low-grade USV escort and no personnel onboard."

Ken frowned at that, just about the only expression he regularly showed.

"That… doesn't make any sense," he said. "Murakumo Industries isn't a major player, sure, but an unmanned convoy guarded only by USVs… I don't like that. It's a bit _too_ convenient."

"Yeah, that's what we thought too," said Sparky. "Do you still want it brought in or should we just… walk away?"

Ken shook his head.

"Too convenient or not, our present circumstances mean we _can't_ just pass it up," he said. "With that G-weapon technology Patrick recently got ahold of… and my hacking has turned up some disturbing information that seems to indicate he might be planning to restore ZAFT's nuclear capability." Sparky gasped at that.

"But that would mean… do you think the General was right?"

"Lily's opinion is part of why we're doing this," said Ken neutrally. "She was the first to say that we'd gone too far, even having that huge falling out with her father. The rest of us were just too angry to see what she did at the time." Ken snorted. "What I'm still wondering is why she was the only one not too angry to see it. We all know why I didn't at first, but a lot of you don't have that excuse."

"Well, she _is_ the General…"

Silence followed that for a moment before Ken shook his head just slightly.

"Is there anything else?" he asked. "I'm grateful for the reprieve, but I do need to get this stuff done."

"Just one Boss," said Sparky. "Why did you send the General out there?"

"A safety measure," said Ken. "This may also be a bit more personal for her then we first realized, so she's investigating that. We want that ship and its data to get to Alaska… but only on _our_ timetable. We don't want them to be deploying mobile suits until after we've captured all of their mass drivers; if that doesn't bring an end to the war, then they'll need those to stop an overwhelming ZAFT victory and restore the balance so that maybe… just maybe… we can have a peaceful resolution to this war."

* * *

The _Archangel_

The next day

The senior officers, civilian volunteers, and George and Flay Allster were gathered in the hangar as a ship-to-ship shuttle from the _Menelaos_ settled down on the floor of the hangar, though the hangar itself was without gravity, forcing Murdoch and his mechanics to secure the shuttle.

Once secured, the shuttle hatch opened, and a well-built blond man with a mustache stepped out, wearing the white uniform of the Atlantic Federation, the rank insignia of a rear admiral on the collar of the uniform.

Lewis Halberton, commander of the 8th Fleet and primary backer of the G-Project.

All of the actual soldiers immediately snapped to attention and saluted.

"You know," said Halberton as he floated down to the desk, "when I first heard of the collapse of Heliopolis, I was convinced that that was the end." Halberton grabbed Murrue's arms gently to stop his forward momentum and push them down slightly, indicating to Murrue that she should stand at east. "What a joy it is to see you people here."

"You do us a tremendous honor," said Murrue. She saluted again. "It's a pleasure to see you again sir."

Resigned now, Halberton returned the salute, and he and Murrue stood at ease.

"I was a bit worried when informed that you were engaged in a battle right before the rendezvous," he said, looking around. "But given the reports, I'm quite delighted to hear that everyone is alright."

"Yes," said Murrue. "Although our crew is inexperienced, they have managed to pull us through a great deal."

"So it would seem," said Halberton, looking at the others. Natarle stepped forward.

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," she introduced.

"I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, of the 7th Orbital Fleet," said Mu, introducing himself and saluting.

"Ah," said Halberton, moving over to stand before Mu as the two officers both stood at ease again. "We were fortunate indeed to have you with us." Halberton held out his hand and Mu shook it.

"Well, I wish I could've been of more service," he said, glancing briefly at the volunteers. "Those kids did a lot more than I did, that's for sure, and I _don't_ just mean the ones who were piloting."

"Hm, yes, as I said, I read the report," said Halberton before looking over at the volunteers. "So, who _do_ we have over here?" Of course, he knew perfectly well who they were, but felt it was best to maintain a certain air of formality.

"Sir, these are the students from Heliopolis," said Murrue. "They've been helping with the operation of the ship."

The instant Murrue finished, Halberton began moving forward, right past Natarle and Mu, heading over to the civilian group. He landed in front of them and smiled as he looked them over.

"We've done some checking on the families of each one of you," he said, "and everyone seems to be safe." As he turned his eyes to Lacus, however, he frowned, deciding not to continue. He was going to ask her about the distinct lack of anyone named "Hirano" on Heliopolis, but now having a close look at her, a new possibility occurred to him. He'd ask her about it later.

"We'd like to extend our gratitude for your assistance during this crisis," continued Halberton, smiling as the volunteers shared murmurs and looks of relief, "and I'd like to add my thanks as well."

"Uh, sir?" said Hoffman, Halberton's executive officer and the captain of the _Menelaos_. "We don't have much time."

"Right," said Halberton, turning his eyes back to the students. "I'd be delighted if later we have an opportunity to sit down together and have a talk," he said to them. He then turned away and left the hangar with Hoffman, Murrue, Natarle, Mu, and Allster. Flay wandered over to her friends, staring at her father's back uncertainly.

* * *

The _Fallen Hope_

Despite being only nineteen years old, Lily Clyne was one of ZAFT's best aces and strategists. She was a hundred and seventy-eight centimeters tall, with a slight frame and prominent bust, long pink hair and cold blue eyes, and was wearing the white ZAFT Commander uniform. Sheathed at her left hip was a straight, single-edged sword, a weapon she hadn't been seen without since the war began, though no one had ever seen it drawn either, despite her status as a notorious blood knight and ice queen, a sharp contrast to her father and sister, both considerably warmer people in terms of personality and presence.

"So, they've rendezvoused with the 8th Fleet," muttered Lily, staring down at the tactical board. She'd gathered all of the commanders, as well as Nicol, Athrun and Dearka—Yzak was still in the infirmary—aboard her flagship for this briefing.

"Our assumption is that Lewis Halberton was the major backer for this project," said Rau. "It makes sense that they would want to meet with him."

"Yes… that does sound like Lewis," said Lily lowly, idly holding her chin as she looked at the numbers. "He's an excellent strategist and leader. He doesn't have the favor of those morons in Atlantic Federation High Command, but the 8th Fleet is still quite formidable, so making an attack on them won't be easy."

Lily reached forward slightly and tapped the 8th Fleet markers on the board.

"They seem to have set course for Earth instead of the moon," she said. "My guess is that they'll descend to lower orbit and take the legged ship straight to Alaska. Get them out of our backyard—they know that taking it to their Lunar Headquarters at this point would just be provoking ZAFT's full might."

"They fear the Falcon," remarked Laconi, looking up at her. "They know Commodore Falcon won't be nearly as effective on Earth, but if they remain in space, then they'll be dealing with all the remaining Champions of ZAFT."

"Champions huh? That's a title I haven't heard in a long time," said Lily. "How many mobile suits can you field?"

"The _Ziegler_ has a full complement of six GINNs," said Laconi.

"The _Galvani_ has four GINNs and my CGUE," said Porto.

"The _Vesalius_ can sortie my CGUE," said Rau, "and the _Gamow_ can sortie the Buster, the Blitz and the Aegis; we also have a spare GINN and the Duel, but with Yzak's condition, he cannot pilot, and we've lost all our other pilots to the legged ship."

"Yes, so I heard," said Lily. "The _Fallen Hope_ can sortie two CGUEs, a GINN High-Maneuver Type and two standard GINNs. The _Fairchild_ can sortie two GINN Assault Types and two standard GINNs."

"So that gives us seventeen GINNs, four CGUEs and the three prototypes," said Nicol, looking from the tactical board to Lily. "If I remember right, the 8th Fleet consists of around three dozen ships, and about a hundred and ten mobile armors. The enemy has us severely outnumbered, but not outmatched."

"Yes, but victory is not assured just by that," said Lily coolly. "One moment of overconfidence, one mistake at the wrong instant and everything goes down the drain." She pressed a switch, displaying footage of the Le Creuset Team's various battles with the legged ship and its mobile suits across several windows. "Take these battles for instance. I must say, I'm quite disappointed; I expected this sort of idiocy from Yzak Joule, but not from you two, Nicol, Athrun."

"Now hold on just a minute!" said Dearka, but Lily shot him a glare that immediately snapped his jaw shut.

"You made a mistake going after the legged ship," she said coldly. "Instead of that, you should've taken full advantage of your armor systems to ignore the ship and the Zero, and taken the enemy mobile suits two-on-one. Forget personal glory, you had an objective and you _screwed it up_. The closest I've seen to reasonable tactics in your battles were when you surrounded the fifth prototype and when you assaulted Artemis. If it weren't for Commander Le Creuset, you'd all be flailing around like children lost in the dark, but seeing as Defense Committee Chairman Zala has left the stolen prototypes in the hands of Le Creuset and you are his only pilots, I am forced to allow this to continue."

The General swept her ice cold eyes over the entire gathering, causing everyone to shiver slightly; perhaps it was fear of her that kept anyone from mentioning that it was Rau himself who'd suggested the basic tactics they'd used in the last battle.

"However, unless Commander Le Creuset has any objections, you will each be flying with a wingman from my unit in the next battle," said Lily, pressing a button on the tactical board that would call her pilots in. "That goes for everyone: no one flies solo, everyone keeps at least one ally on their wing. Anyone who fails to obey these orders should withdraw before their recklessness can threaten the entire mission."

"Understood General," said Rau. "I have no objections to your plans."

"Good."

The door to the bridge opened and four pilots stepped inside, a young man in ZAFT Green and three teenagers, one boy and two girls, in ZAFT Red. Their arrival drew everyone's attention, and Lily gave a slight nod.

"The girls are Shiho Hahnenfuss and Rebecca Fairchild; the boys are Chrono Serizawa and Yūno Bayles." As Lily introduced each of them, they gave a slight nod—Shiho was a violet-eyed brunette, Rebecca was a young girl with blue eyes and light-blue hair, Chrono was the male ZAFT Red, with blue eyes and blue hair, and Yūno was a man with blond hair and blue eyes. "Nicol, you will be flying with Shiho on your wing. Athrun, you will have Yūno on your wing. Elsman, you'll have Chrono on your wing."

"Yes ma'am," said the three, saluting her.

"As for our plan of attack, we'll need to take advantage of Halberton's main objective," said Lily. "We'll divide our forces; not such a good tactic normally when we're this heavily outnumbered, but for the time being, our advantage in power is enough to make up for it. Commanders Laconi and Porto, the two of you will break off from our main fleet and flank the enemy from the planar north, silent running. You are _not_ to engage until the enemy mobile armors have all moved to the front of the fleet, where we'll be attacking them. If we do this right, your pilots will have a minute or two unharassed by mobile armors in which you can take the enemy warships. However, you are _not_ to engage the legged ship directly; we want to break the 8th Fleet, and we'll be making use of our stolen mobile weapons to help facilitate that, but only myself, Le Creuset, and the wing-pairs of our subordinates should engage the legged ship itself. Is that clear?"

"Yes General!" said all of the pilots, saluting her. Lily gave a slight nod.

"General, are you sure this will fool Halberton?" asked Rau. Lily gave him an icy smile.

"It won't," she said. "We've never met personally, but Lewis and I have matched wits numerous times. He'll see through this… but if the pattern holds, he'll see through it just a bit too late, and he knows it. Even if he catches on sooner, though, it won't make much of a difference. Remember Crucible: I prefer scenarios that don't _have_ a losing outcome."

"Yes… I remember," said Rau. Lily nodded and swept her eyes over the gathering once more.

"You're all dismissed," she said. "We'll be attacking tomorrow since it will take some time for the _Zeigler _and _Galvani_ to setup the flanking maneuver. For now, everyone get some rest, I want all of you fresh for the battle tomorrow."

* * *

The _Archangel_

The senior officer meeting (with Vice Minister Allster present) was being held in the captain's room, Halberton sitting at the desk.

"How could they resort to such extreme measures as destroying Heliopolis and Artemis?" asked Hoffman bitterly. "All for the sake of this lone ship and a single G-machine…"

Murrue looked down.

"You're forgetting that they think this 'White Frame' of Orb's belongs to us as well—which, for all intent and purpose, it did at the time," said Halberton. "Nevertheless, the fact that the crew was able to protect this ship and the Strike can be counted as a significant victory."

"It would seem that Alaska does not share that view," replied Hoffman calmly. Hoffman's words came as a surprise to Mu and Natarle.

"Bah," scoffed Halberton. "What do they know about the realities of space combat? Lieutenant Ramius has understood all along what I've been trying to achieve." Murrue looked up, shocked at the praise. "Nothing in this matter warrants any concern."

"Yes admiral," said Murrue.

Hoffman pulled out two pieces of paper, looking them over. "Moving on to the topic of the young Coordinators," he said, "are we gonna forget all about them?" He put the papers on the desk, revealing them to be the reports on Kira and Lacus. Allster shifted, his eyes narrowing at the reports.

"Kira Yamato and Lacus Hirano only wanted to protect their friends," said Murrue. "That was the only reason they boarded those mobile suits for us."

"Hmm," murmured Halberton, thoughts straying once again to the mystery presented by Lacus Hirano.

"In all likelihood," continued Murrue, "we would not have made it this far if it weren't for the abilities of those kids. However, their decision was dictated by events beyond their control; and they did suffer greatly from having to fight against their own people. They are kind, sincere, individuals, and I believe we should repay them for their selfless efforts with our complete trust."

"And yet, if we allow them to go now…" said Hoffman uncertainly.

"What? They'll carry the secrets of the Strike to Orb?" said Halberton, snorting slightly. "ZAFT already has four of the G-weapons, in case you've forgotten, and Orb already has the technology themselves—the White Frame is proof of _that_. Besides, ever since I read the report on it, I've been looking into some things, and that machine is going to be remaining with Kira Yamato until _he_ says otherwise." Everyone else shared a confused look at this. "So, as you can see, the G-weapons are hardly a secret anymore; there's no reason not to let them go."

"Besides, we can't have Coordinators fighting for the Earth Forces," said Allster, trying to keep his voice even. It was difficult, fighting against his disgust with the space monsters, but he knew he'd accomplish nothing as things stood.

"Lieutenant Ramius," said Halberton, ignoring Allster entirely. "The _Archangel_ will be descending with the Strike to deliver the machine to Alaska. We lost your relief crew with the advance fleet and don't have many to spare ourselves, so you'll have to go with your current crew compliment and the two or three we can spare."

"Understood," said Murrue, thoughts grim—she hoped the new arrivals would be able to handle bridge duties, because without those kids, they didn't even have a skeleton crew.

"I'll contact you later with the details for what personnel and supplies will be transferred over, as well as the matter of the civilian volunteers," said Hoffman.

* * *

That night, Halberton had returned to the _Menelaos_ to arrange things, but Murrue suspected he would return tomorrow, if only because he hadn't gotten the chance to talk to the volunteers.

She was looking over the list of supplies currently being loaded from 8th Fleet tender ships into the _Archangel_'s cargo hold; missiles and ammo, fuel, water and food were all given. There was a brief note about a lack of ninety millimeter ammo for the White Frame, but the only reason for resupplying the White Frame was in case of emergency before the refugees could be off-loaded. They were also being given a pair of Skygraspers, support fighter craft for the Strike, though Mu would soon be their only pilot, and the other pilots they'd had had been piloting the mobile suits anyway.

In addition, there was also a variety of new potential equipment for the Strike—bazookas, unpowered physical swords sharper than the GINN and CGUE ones they'd salvaged, flamethrowers that could be mounted on the arms, even torpedo launchers in the event of undersea combat.

There were also the CSVs for the three new crewmembers she'd be getting, all that the 8th Fleet could actually spare. One was a new doctor, Caleb Graham, one was a mechanic, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jerry Arthur, and the last was an engineer: Lieutenant Sophia DiFalco, an old friend of Murrue's from the academy.

It would be good to see her friend again, but she'd have to disappoint Sophia by forcing her to help out on the bridge, as she was the only new crewmember they were getting qualified for bridge duty.

Included was Hoffman's idea for the best way to address the matter of their volunteer crew—since there were treaties in place that forbade civilian combatants, they would simply be retroactively commissioned as crewmen of the _Archangel_, and Hoffman would be bringing discharge papers when he and Halberton returned tomorrow.

Finally, the exact fate of the White Frame—Murrue now understood what Halberton had been saying about the machine sticking with Kira until he said otherwise.

Due to certain technicalities—namely, that the machine didn't officially exist and was thus unowned by any nations, and the nature of salvage laws—Kira had become the _owner_ of the White Frame. He could do whatever he wanted with it—keep it for personal reasons, take it apart, even sell it and live the rest of his life in luxury since the thing was probably worth at least a couple hundred (probably a few _thousand_) times what Murrue could ever hope to make in her entire lifetime.

She hoped she could be there to see the look on his face when he found out.

* * *

The next day

"Discharge papers?" questioned Tolle, looking at the papers he and the other volunteers had been given.

"So… we were soldiers all along?" asked Mir, somewhat incredulous.

"Assigned to the _Archangel_ of the 8th Fleet," read Kuzzey.

"Where are Kira Yamato and Lacus Hirano?" asked Natarle. The others looked up at her, then at each other. She shook her head. "Never mind, just give these to them later." Natarle handed two additional sets of discharge papers to Sai.

"It may have been an emergency situation that forced it," said Hoffman, deciding to explain things, "but the fact is, it's illegal for civilians to take part in combat. We want to avoid any potential problems, for yourselves and for us as well, so this is our solution. You will all be recognized as volunteer soldiers who entered the military when you came aboard; don't lose those discharge papers, or it could lead to a lot of trouble for you in the future. Furthermore, any information you learned while on board should be treated as confidential, even after you return to Orb."

"Excuse me," said Flay from behind the volunteers, stepping forward a bit.

"You were not involved in combat," said Natarle sharply, "therefore, you're not required to go through these procedures."

"No, that's not it," said Flay. She took a deep breath. "I… I would like to join the Earth Alliances Forces as a crewman of the _Archangel_."

Flay's words drew gasps of shock from her friends.

"But, Flay…" said Sai.

* * *

Down in the hangar, Kira and Lacus stood on the catwalk facing the Sakura; this machine was, in many ways, at the center of everything for them. It had carried them out of the burning factory, and its power had allowed them to survive the ZAFT assault.

But that power had also brought them into battle several times; even still, it was hard to see it in a dark light—there was simply something majestic about the machine.

"Suddenly getting nostalgic, now that you're disembarking?" came Halberton's voice suddenly, drawing the teenagers' attention. He was walking down the catwalk towards them, one hand on the rail to keep from accidentally pushing off. He came to a stop next to them as they straightened up.

"Kira and Lacus, right? I've read a great deal about your actions in the reports."

"Uh, yes," said Kira.

"Hmm… considering the circumstances, you both proved yourselves quite remarkable," said Halberton softly. He swept his eyes over the entire hangar, including behind him, focusing briefly on the Sakura before looking back to them. "Although you have fought for the Earth Forces, I imagine your sister will be quite proud of your accomplishments, Miss Clyne." The two stiffened slightly, and Halberton chuckled.

"Oh, don't you worry," he said, "I understand your circumstances, to an extent. I might not have realized myself, but as it happens, I've met the Blood Princess a few times, after a fashion."

"Please do not call her that," said Lacus softly. "Sis hates war… it's taken away almost everything she cared about… including someone who was very dear to her."

"I see; I apologize," said Halberton, turning to look at the Sakura. "Still, it's a surprise that you would be here. Even more surprising is what the two of you have done with these machines; they were only meant to be an adequate counter to ZAFT's mobile suits, but with you inside, piloting them, they suddenly become near-superweapons. I can't help but find myself once again amazed at the abilities of you Coordinators."

"That's not true!" said Lacus quickly, before Kira could speak up. "Us being Coordinators… yes, that has some affect on how quickly we learn and adapt, but… but it's not everything."

"Could you explain that viewpoint?" asked Halberton. "And I in no way mean to offend; I am merely fascinated by your abilities. No Natural can pilot a mobile suit."

"One can," said Lacus. Kira and Halberton's eyes widened in shock. "I only know this because he was a family friend, but… ZAFT's Ace of Aces… the Number One of the Champions… he was actually a Natural."

"But how can that _be_?" questioned Halberton, incredulous.

"He was naturally talented, and took himself to the limits constantly," said Lacus. "He only left because his superiors found out he wasn't a Coordinator, and were going to report him to Patrick Zala."

"I see," said Halberton. He smiled, shaking his head. "Well, then perhaps we _do_ stand a chance in this war. But it is _our_ war, not yours." He looked up at the Sakura. "And it is not the war of this machine either. It will be remaining with you, Kira Yamato."

"Huh? Seriously?" questioned Kira.

"Yes; due to a… technicality… this fascinating and valuable piece of military hardware belongs to you," said Halberton. The two Coordinators stared at him in complete and utter shock, and Halberton nearly laughed. "Officially, it doesn't exist, so it can't belong to a nation, and thus, it is only an object that you salvaged. You can do what you wish with it—use it for some kind of work, join a military with it, just hold it for nostalgic reasons… you might even sell it as a sort of fundraiser for the Heliopolis refugees; its worth quite a bit of money, so I advise you not to callously discard it."

"Ah… yes sir," said Kira uncertainly.

"Well… this has been an interesting discussion," said Halberton. "I won't pry into any personal matters for you two; but I would like to thank you, regardless, for the assistance you have rendered to this ship. It is my hope that, with this, we may be able to bring a quick end to this war. Perhaps when it does end, we can all meet again. Until that time, I wish you the best of luck, and hope that being Coordinators will be able to improve your futures; few others seem to be so fortunate." He smiled at them. "And Kira? I don't want to sound critical of your parents, but I think you might want to ask them why it is they made you a Coordinator; if it was for some dream they had for your future, then I for one would want to try and make their dream come true. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes Admiral," said Kira with a small smile.

"Sir!" called a _Menelaos_ officer who'd come aboard with Halberton earlier. The officer saluted. "The _Menelaos_ would like you back on board at once; there are suspicions of ZAFT activity in the area."

"I see; I guess it was too much to hope they'd leave us alone," said Halberton with a resigned sigh. He looked back to the Coordinator pilots. "Well, at least we were fortunate enough to have a decent chat! May the two of you live to see the dawn of a better era." Halberton gave them a quick salute as a show of thanks and began to walk away.

"Uh, sir!" called Kira, surprising Lacus and Halberton.

"Hmm?" mumbled Halberton, turning back to face Kira.

"Uh, so what happens now to the _Archangel_?" asked Kira. "And to Lieutenant Ramius and the others?"

"The _Archangel_ will be heading to Earth, just the way it is," said Halberton, "so they'll be returning to the battlefield."

Kira looked down uncertainly. Truthfully, he'd become rather attached to the ship and its crew.

"Well, I thought I…" started Kira before falling silent. Attached he may be, but at the same time, he wanted, no _needed_ to get Lacus safely back home…

"I know exactly what you're concerned about," said Halberton, turning more fully to face the two of them, Lacus still staring at Kira with a measure of surprise. "You possess certain abilities that are very attractive to the military. However, it's not as if we're assured of victory if we have you. War's not that simple. Don't flatter yourself."

"But…" said Kira before trailing off once again; he continued after a moment's pause, somewhat more confidently. "If I have the power to make a difference, I should put it to good use, right?"

"Sir, please…" started the _Menelaos_ officer, but Halberton held up a hand for silence.

"Only if you have the will to do it!" said Halberton. He turned to leave, but continued to look at the two of them. "Anyone who lacks the will never does see it through to the end."

With that, Halberton left.

"Kira," said Lacus softly.

"I know…" he said, "I know that we need to get you home… and that sooner or later, _she'll_ be coming after us if we stay… but at the same time…"

"You know… I think she'd lose respect for you if you left just because of that," said Lacus. "But… since when has Lily's approval really mattered to you?"

"I guess… her approval means a lot to me… it means I don't have to worry about her coming after me for being close to you…"

Lacus giggled. "She's not _that_ overprotective; she just doesn't like Athrun because the engagement was forced. Really, I think she's pretty stupid to dislike him for that; Athrun did nothing to deserve it, and she really should be angry at daddy and Athrun's father, instead of Athrun himself."

Kira couldn't help but smile slightly.

* * *

"You realize what you're saying?" asked Natarle, as thoroughly shocked by Flay's words as Hoffman and the volunteers were.

"Look, I'm not saying this just for the fun of it," said Flay. "I've thought about it ever since my father came aboard, when Kira and Lacus saved him from ZAFT."

"That means you must be the daughter of Vice Minister Allster," said Hoffman in surprise, unaware of the tension between the two.

"Yes," said Flay. "My name is Flay Allster. I… ever since I first talked to him when he came aboard, I've been thinking about everything. Everyone counts for something… right? The ship is understaffed, and everyone is certain that it can make a difference. I want to help with that, in whatever way I can, even if it's only cleaning the corridors or something to make things easier for the rest of the crew. After everything that's happened… I can't just walk away." Flay left unspoken her hopes that, somehow, if the _Archangel_ made the difference it was supposed to, maybe, just maybe, both sides would be more willing to negotiate a ceasefire and peace treaty. She was becoming increasingly sympathetic to the PLANTs because of her Coordinator friends, but also realized that, after the Bloody Valentine, they'd never accept a ceasefire unless the Earth Forces could manage to equal them. Even she knew that ZAFT was slowly, but surely, winning the war.

"Throughout all of this, everyone's been doing their best for this ship and everyone aboard… except me," continued Flay. "So… please, allow me to join the crew."

Hoffman and Natarle nodded slightly.

"Very well then," said Hoffman. "Come with us. We should probably discuss this with your father."

"I'd, uh, rather do that privately," said Flay. She wasn't certain what Hoffman and Natarle would think of her present conflict with her father, though she figured Natarle might already know.

Hoffman nodded. "Very well," he said. "Come with us. I believe he's preparing for departure with the Orb refugees even now."

With that, the two officers left, Flay in tow.

Sai turned back to the others. They all looked at each other.

"Like she said, the ship is still understaffed," he said, "and a war's still being fought, on Earth and in space." Everyone looked at their discharge papers.

Suddenly, Sai tore his discharge papers in two.

"Sai!" exclaimed Tolle. Mir gasped in shock as she stood up with Tolle and Kuzzey.

"What Flay expressed is pretty much exactly my sentiments as well," explained Sai. Then, he gave a slight smile. "Besides, it wouldn't be right for me to leave her alone, now would it?"

"Hmm," murmured Tolle, before ripping his own papers in two.

"Tolle!" said Mir in shock.

"The _Archangel_ is still short-handed," said Tolle. "I'd feel partly responsible if sometime down the road, it got shot down."

Miriallia didn't hesitate after that, and tore her papers in two as well.

"You too Mir?" asked Tolle.

"If you're planning to stay Tolle, then so am I," she said. They then turned as they heard the sound of more paper ripping, and saw Kuzzey holding his torn discharge papers.

"You're all staying, can't expect me to leave," he said.

"You're a fool," said Tolle. At that moment, things between the three boys effectively degenerated into some playful name-calling.

"Huh… ah," muttered Tolle, looking back at the bed where the remaining discharge papers sat. "But they'll be leaving, won't they? Suppose so…"

* * *

"Welcome to the _Archangel_," said Murrue to the three new crewmembers that had arrived with Halberton. "I apologize for not being able to greet you properly earlier."

The highest ranked of the group, a woman about Murrue's age with black hair and emerald eyes, shifted forward slightly.

"It was no trouble; you've been busy," said Sophia DiFalco. She smiled slightly. "It's been awhile, Murrue."

"It has Sophia," said the captain, returning the smile. The other two new arrivals shifted uncomfortably. "How has your brother been?"

"You mean Ken? I don't know, I haven't heard from him in years," said Sophia. Murrue glanced at the other two.

"You should get to your stations," she said. "I've been told that there are suspicions of a ZAFT presence in the area."

"Yes ma'am," said Petty Officer Arthur and Doctor Graham, giving her quick salutes. They were more than happy to escape the situation.

"Sophia, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to man one of our electronic warfare stations," said Murrue. "You'll be running the job solo; Ensign Badgiruel will be handling communications, mobile weapon control and enemy search & detection."

"That's a tall order," said Sophia. "Were those civilians really contributing that much?"

"Yes," said Murrue with a small sigh. "Without them, things are going to get a lot tougher."

* * *

A short while after Halberton left, Kira and Lacus, once more in civilian clothes, headed to where the _Menelaos_ shuttle that would be ferrying them to the flagship waited. Once aboard the _Menelaos_, they'd be transferred to a shuttle bound for Orb; Kira didn't know the details of how they were going to get the Sakura down with them, but had confirmed that he would be taking the machine with him. When they arrived, they found the secondary hangar bay already was filled with refugees. From what Kira had heard, Flay's father had already boarded the shuttle.

The two glanced around, confused by the absence of their other friends, but something else soon drew their attention.

"Oh…" said a little brown haired girl as she spotted the two ex-pilots. She pushed away from her mother towards them.

"C-come back, El!" called the mother. The girl laughed slightly as her momentum was stopped by Kira, and she landed on the deck. She reached into her bag, and pulled out a pair of paper flowers.

"Thank you for protecting the rest of us till now," she said, surprising the two. "That nice lady with red hair told me all about how you were protecting everyone." That surprised the two—Flay had told the girl about them?

The two hadn't realized, but when the last battle began, they'd been in such a rush that they'd failed to notice when El had fallen, trying to avoid crashing into them. Flay had comforted the frightened girl, and reassured her that they'd be safe, since Kira and Lacus would be fighting to protect them.

Leaning down, the two smiled at El and took the flowers.

"Thank you for this," said Kira. The girl smiled and turned around, pushing off back towards her mother. As soon as she was grounded next to the woman once more, she looked back at the Coordinators and waved to them.

* * *

The _Gamow_

"_Mobile suits to launch in three minutes,_" announced the mobile suit controller over the PA. "_All units check systems._"

As the _Gamow_'s hangar opened in preparation to launch the Buster (the Aegis and Blitz having been transferred over to the _Vesalius_), Yzak rushed out of the infirmary, ignoring the protests of the doctors, one hand clenched on his bandaged face.

He'd been humiliated. Those enemy mobile suits had taken on all four of their machines and nearly destroyed all of them. Yzak's reputation as an ace was shattered, having lost to some clearly overmatched, weak Naturals…

Well, he'd change that. With the extra armor, thrusters, missile pod and railgun of the Duel's newly added Assault Shroud, he'd tear one or even both machines to pieces. He was sure of it.

* * *

The _Fallen Hope_

"So, Joule wants to launch despite his injury?" questioned Lily neutrally, staring at Rau on the display screen.

"_Yes,_" said Rau. "_I believe it best that we allow him to launch; I'd rather not detain him, which is no doubt what it would take to stop him, and if he launches with approval, then he's more likely to stay under control._"

"Very well," said Lily. "It's your choice anyways, Le Creuset." She glanced over her shoulder at her pilots, who gave her slight nods, before she looked forward again. "We'll adjust our assignments accordingly; Rebecca will fly on Nicol's wing instead of Shiho. Shiho will instead fly on Joule's wing, and she _will_ have authority over him."

"_Agreed,_" said Rau. "_Will you be launching yourself?_"

"Yes," said Lily. "Care to join me, Crucible?"

"_I think I would,_" said Rau sinisterly. "_It will be just like old times, General._"

* * *

The _Archangel_

Kira was becoming increasingly less certain as more and more people boarded the shuttle and his friends still failed to show up.

"Kira!" came Sai's voice from behind, and Kira turned with Lacus to see all of his friends, still in uniform, floating towards them.

"Finally, we couldn't find any of you guys and…" started Kira, but Sai grabbed Kira's hand and put two sets of paper in it.

"This is meant for the two of you," he said. "They're your discharge papers."

"You guys are going alone," said Mir. "We've all decided to remain here."

"Yeah, with the _Archangel_," said Tolle.

"Huh?" gasped Kira and Lacus.

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"Three _Nazca_-class, one _Laurasia_-class," announced the enemy search & detection officer as alarms began going off in the carrier's bridge. "Green eighteen, distance five hundred. Enemy engagement in about fifteen minutes."

"They've set a course straight for the fleet?" asked Hoffman incredulously. Even with their mobile weapon superiority, four ships and twenty-four mobile suits couldn't take on the entire 8th Fleet.

"Damn it, at a time like this," muttered Halberton, clenching his teeth. The radar officer suddenly gasped.

"No… but this is…!"

"What's the matter?" demanded Hoffman.

"We've identified the lead _Nazca_-class!" said the operator. "Admiral, it's the _Fallen Hope_!"

"What?! You mean they deployed _her_?!" demanded Halberton in shock. Hoffman was too shocked to say anything at all.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"I can't believe it," muttered Murrue, staring in horror at the magnified image of the ZAFT fleet in the distance. "Le Creuset was bad enough, but for them to have sent another Champion… and the Blood Princess at that…"

"They must really want this ship dead," said Sophia. "The two battles the General took part in on Earth, she tore our forces apart; she led the attack on Kaohsiung during the final days."

"Cease loading and seal off the bay at once," ordered Murrue. She turned to Pal. "Is the _Menelaos_ launch gone?"

"Not yet, captain," said Pal.

"Tell them to hurry," said Murrue. "All hands, level one battlestations!"

* * *

Kira and Lacus looked from one of their four friends to the next.

"You're staying?" asked Kira. "What do you mean?"

"Flay decided to volunteer," said Kuzzey.

"Huh?!" exclaimed Kira slightly, shocked at the news.

"So we thought we'd do the same," finished Kuzzey.

Suddenly, the alert sounded. "_All hands, level one battlestations!_" announced Natarle over the PA. "_I repeat, all hands, level one battlestations!_"

"You over there, we're leaving!" called one of the _Menelaos_ shuttle operators.

"Uh, please wait a moment, they're coming!" called Tolle, surprising the former pilots. "Think of this as destiny," he continued, putting his hands on Kira's shoulders. "So long; help us by making sure you get to Earth safely." With that, Tolle pushed off from Kira, Mir and Kuzzey following him immediately.

"Make sure you stay safe!" called Mir.

"Yeah, and don't go joining ZAFT either!" added Tolle jokingly, though for Lacus, the possibility was actually _very_ real.

"Hey, good luck you two," said Sai, putting his hands on their shoulders, "Kira, make sure Lacus gets back home; and Lacus? When all of this is over, I'd like it if I could hear you at a concert sometime." He smiled and pushed off. "Just remember, you two will always be heroes in my book."

"Listen, if you're getting on, make it quick," said the shuttle operator as Kira and Lacus hesitated.

"Lieutenant La Flaga will be launching in the Zero," said one of the mechanics in the hangar.

"Its fine," said the other mechanic, "we've finished the repairs. How we're supposed to get the White Frame moved in this situation though is beyond me."

Kira looked between the discharge papers and the flower in his hand, thinking back on everything that had happened. Lacus looked at him in concern as she almost absentmindedly took one set of discharge paper.

Kira closed his eyes… then opened them, a familiar resolve in his expression. Lacus knew what he was going to do as he crushed the discharge papers and looked back at the shuttle operator.

"Please, go without me," he said before pushing off towards the exit. Lacus smiled softly at Kira, and crushed her own discharge papers, releasing it as Kira did, and following after him.

"We'll be staying with the _Archangel_," she said to the shocked shuttle operator. "Go ahead and launch."

As the two exited the hangar, they shared a look and, with small smiles, nodded to each other.

"Let's go make a difference," said Kira.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well, there you have it. The identity of "Lily" whom Lacus has been referring to since chapter 1 is finally revealed. I think the most surprising thing was that no one connected the dots and realized sooner that Lily, the General and the Blood Princess were all one and the same, or at least that no one mentioned it if they did.  
**

**Other than that, Falcon is also introduced here; redoing his character was one of the reasons I wanted to reboot this story, because I felt I hadn't done proper justice to the character. I also establish a major disconnect between this story and canon, with a _Natural_ being the ultimate ace pilot ZAFT ever had.**

**There's also quite a bit different about Flay's characterization; I've been setting this up for awhile, but I still want to smooth it out some when I cleanup the earlier chapters. Halberton knows who Lacus is, Hoffman certainly comes across as nicer than he did in canon (to me at least), and the _Archangel_ finally picks up some new crew; too bad it's not enough to keep them from being a "not even quite a skeleton" crew.**

**Two things to note, which there was no genuinely good place to mention in the chapter: the _Agamemnon_-class carriers can carry four _dozen_ mobile armors instead of just twelve. The other thing is that Lily's sword is purely symbolic and sentimental, and the whole point of it is that it's never supposed to be used. Details about that will come, eventually, but I wanted to get this out of the way. (it's also a nod to the Gray Demons habit of carrying swords; the earliest concepts actually had her as a former Gray Demon instead of full-on peer to Falcon).**

**Alright, A/Ns finished, I'm off now! I'll see you all next week, but I'm warning you in advance that I may be absent the Friday before and after Thanksgiving due to a family trip. I might still post, but I make no promises.**

**Please review! Ja ne!**


	9. Burning Descent

**I must say, I'm really happy with the positive response to the last chapter and to Lily. Though there were some understandable fears, I'm glad people are at least willing to give her a chance. Please just remember that things tend to "get worse" before they get better, by which I mean that we're probably going to see more of Lily and other OCs being "perfect Mary Sues" before we really get to see their flaws.**

**I'm also really glad that I was able to update this on time, especially as I have some sad news to announce: there will be no updates to this story for the next two weeks. Reasons for this are three-fold: first, I'm going to be out of town for a week from next Friday till the Friday after to visit family for Thanksgiving. Second, the end of the school semester is approaching, so I'm busier than usual with class.**

**Third, I've finally gotten some inspiration for _Mobile Suit Gundam Eternity_, so I've been working on that, and I might even start posting it while I'm out of town. However, it will only be posted to my blog/website, which after nearly a year of just sitting there is finally being worked on again; it is, hopefully, now more reader friendly. I'm currently posting profiles for characters from _Gundam Eternity_, only female ones so far because I want pictures for each to help give people an image of the characters so as to make them more distinct... and finding images for male characters is _hard_, unless you're willing to grab samurai, shameless, shirtless fanservice bishonen, or something along those general lines.**

**I'd post a link, but that's difficult for me right now, so let's just get on with the story, and sorry for the lame chapter title.**

**Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

Phase Nine: Burning Descent  


February 13th, Cosmic Era 71

* * *

The _Menelaos_

The air aboard the dozens of warships orbiting the Earth was tense, as everyone prepared for battle; the ZAFT vessels had opened their catapults, but hadn't deployed mobile suits quite yet, and Halberton suspected he knew why.

"All vessels assume a tight formation and prepare to intercept!" ordered Halberton on the comm. phone mounted on his seat's arm. "_Archangel_, do not move. Remain beside this ship."

"Valkyrie One and Valkyrie Two, launch now," ordered Hoffman. "Activate N-jammers. Prepare anti-beam depth charges."

As Hoffman ordered, the _Menelaos_'s Moebius mobile armors began to deploy, and more mobile armors launched from each of the other vessels of the 8th Fleet, with the exception of the _Archangel_.

Orders were given for the supply ships to withdraw, as the ship-to-ship shuttle launched from the _Archangel_ docked with the _Menelaos_, carrying the Heliopolis refugees and Vice Minister George Allster.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Activate Igelstellungs," ordered Murrue. "Load Korinthos. Prepare to fire Gottfrieds and Lohengrin. Remain on standby."

Everyone was tense, even Natarle—they were being drawn into a battle with an insufficient crew to even be called "skeleton".

"Lovely first day on the job," muttered Sophia dryly as she readied all of the ECM and ECCM systems.

A few seconds after she said that, though, the bridge door suddenly opened.

"Sorry we're late," said Sai as he led the civilian volunteers inside, shocking the entire bridge crew. "It won't happen again."

"What are the four of you doing here?" demanded Murrue as Tolle and Mir took back their old stations, Sai slipped into the open electronic warfare station, and Kuzzey stood next to a frozen Natarle, waiting for her to recover from her obvious shock so he could retake the radar station.

"We decided to stick around," said Tolle. "Couldn't exactly leave all of you behind, could we?"

"You'll find that we have 'lost' our discharge papers," said Sai lightly. "So I do believe we still have a job here."

Recovering from her shock slightly, Natarle blinked and vacated the radar station, letting Kuzzey take it back, pushing herself slightly into the main bridge to look at Murrue.

"Flay Allster enlisted after we gave them the discharge papers," she said. "She requested permission to join as a member of the crew; Captain Hoffman accepted her, and I approved it personally. But I didn't realize these four would decide to stay as well…"

"Are you guys really sure about this?" questioned Arnold. Miriallia shrugged.

"We don't have the discharge papers anymore," she said, "so we're kind of committed either way."

"Well, I'm sure we're all grateful for the assistance," said Pal, "but I hope for your sakes that this really was the right decision. We're in a bit of a bind." Most of the other crewmen let out a sigh of agreement at that. Sophia glanced around, rather confused by the surprisingly informal air, especially given what she knew of Natarle.

She looked back over her shoulder at Sai.

"Well, this is an interesting turn," she said. "Guess I'll have the chance to see what the hype about you kids is all about. The name's Sophia DiFalco; looks like we'll be working the electronic warfare together."

"Ah, Sai Argyle," he replied, while Natarle returned to the CIC and settled into the command seat.

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"Admiral, the _Fallen Hope_ is hailing us."

"Is that right?" muttered Halberton. "Very well; let's see what the Blood Princess of ZAFT has to say to us."

"Yes sir."

A few seconds later, Lily appeared on the display screen.

"_Lewis Halberton… It's been a long time, hasn't it?_" said Lily tonelessly.

"It has Lily Clyne," replied Halberton firmly. "I seem to recall you having a bit more emotion in your voice last time."

"_The ravages of war Lewis_," replied Lily. "_Still, I didn't call for pleasantries. I shall be blunt with you: you can't win this. But you, your fleet and that ship can all walk away._"

"Is that so?" said Halberton, quirking an eyebrow. "And what might be the price of this 'generous' offer?"

"_A meeting with those two extraordinary pilots… and you must hand over those marvelous mobile suits._"

"Well, how could I _possibly_ refuse such a _generous_ offer from the great Knight-General of ZAFT?"

"_I see you've learned how to lay the sarcasm on even thicker. I knew you'd refuse though; still, it seemed the courteous thing to do for an old friend. You might not think so Lewis, but I'm not even half the monster people make me out to be. Farewell, old friend._"

The screen blinked out.

"Registering mobile suit deployment from the ZAFT warships!" called the sensor operator.

* * *

The _Archangel_

The door of the pilot's locker room opened and Kira and Lacus stepped entered, rushing to their respective lockers and snatching their pilot suits out of them.

"Huh? Y-you stayed?" came a shaky voice suddenly. The childhood friends turned to see Flay in the pink Earth Forces female cadet uniform, standing at the door of the locker room.

Kira smiled slightly. "Yeah," he said, "we stayed. We couldn't leave you all alone, after all."

Flay stared at them, wide-eyed, as Lacus worked at the straps of her dress before pausing.

"Um, could you come inside or go outside and close the door?" she asked somewhat sheepishly. "The ship's nearly deserted now, but I'd rather not give any passersby a peek…"

Blushing slightly, Flay stepped in, hitting the switch to close the door. When that was done, Kira and Lacus resumed stripping out of their civilian clothes, not really looking at each other, and changing into the underclothes they'd be wearing with the pilot suits.

Flay quickly turned her back on them, both to avert her eyes and to hide the prominent blush that was forming on her cheeks.

"Kuzzey said you decided to volunteer," said Kira, "so… why?"

"I… I wanted to make a difference," said Flay, not turning to face them. "I want a peaceful world… one where, just maybe, people can forget that hatred… I'm… not proud of my behavior towards you in the past."

"Its fine," said Lacus. "What's important is how you behave now."

"Yes, but… it's not just that," said Flay. "In this world… what about the people caught between the two sides?"

_That_ gave Kira and Lacus pause as they were starting to pull on their pilot suits, turning to face Flay.

"When I was a little girl, I had a friend," said Flay softly. "Her name was Maria, and she was… she was a Hybrid."

The two pilots' eyes widened in shock as they stared at each other.

"She was killed because of that," continued Flay. "So… even though I hated Coordinators… I never had anything against Hybrids."

That was somewhat unusual—the Hybrids, born of one Natural and one Coordinator parent, were the biggest black sheep of the human race, caught between the two other genetic types and not accepted by either. To Coordinators, the Hybrids were the same as Naturals… and to Naturals, they were no different from Coordinators. Kira and Lacus knew only one Hybrid that they were aware of, as most would pass themselves off as Naturals or Coordinators in order to get by.

"I began to think… if this ship can really make a difference, than I want to help with that," said Flay, "because as long as this war goes on… the hatred that exists between all of us can never be forgotten. So that's why…"

"I see," said Lacus softly. She smiled at Flay. "Well then… I guess we'll just have to make sure we succeed in making a difference."

Slowly, Flay turned to face the two, smiling slightly.

"Yes… good luck you two," said Flay. "I'll do whatever I can to help."

"We know," said Kira. "Thank you Flay."

* * *

The ZAFT charge was led by a pair of CGUEs, one the traditional silver, the other a distinctive solid white—the personal machines of Rau Le Creuset and Lily Clyne, respectively. Trailing just behind them were the four captured G-weapons, the Duel and its CGUE wingman just a little ahead of the others.

Yzak had wanted to rush off ahead, but had been forbidden by pretty much everyone, and Shiho had orders to drag him back to the ships if he got out of line. While her CGUE was outmatched by the Duel's power, Shiho's skills more than made up for that.

Following only a little further back from the Duel was the Aegis with Yūno's standard green GINN on its wing carrying a Barrus ion cannon, the Blitz with Rebecca's silver-gray GINN High-Maneuver Type on its wing, and finally the Buster with Chrono's custom-colored blue GINN on its wing.

"Alright Joule, now you get what you want," said Lily as they approached engagement range. "All units but the four captured machines are to fall back momentarily; Amalfi, Zala, Elsman, Joule, the four of you will move forward and engage the enemy mobile armors for fifteen seconds—that should be sufficient to break up their formations. You'll then rejoin with your wingmen, understood?"

"_Yes ma'am!_"

Lily gave a slight nod, and pulled back on the controls, firing reverse thrust along with all the other ZAFT-built machines. The mobile armors, which had been expected those six machines alongside the G-weapons, were caught flat-footed facing an enemy against whom their weapons were virtually worthless.

Yzak, ever the aggressive one, opened fire first, launching a barrage of missiles from the pod of his new assault shroud, followed by several shots from his beam rifle and Shiva railgun. Dearka was only seconds behind, letting loose with a barrage from both of his missile pods, weapons ideally suited to facing down the swarm tactics of the Earth Forces mobile armors.

Athrun was a few seconds behind, firing off several quick shots with his beam rifle, and nailing all four mobile armors he targeted, a better accuracy rate than the other two. Nicol only fired off two shots from his new beam rifle before storing it on his machine's waist and drawing a beam saber instead, shooting forward and relying on his greater speed, mobility and armor to close with the mobile armors and slice them apart.

After only a few seconds, the mobile armors broke formation, and then the remaining ZAFT pilots dove in, Shiho, Rebecca, Chrono and Yūno immediately moving back into their wingman positions.

The opening shots were decidedly in ZAFT's favor—on average, it took five Moebiuses to bring down a single GINN, which could equal an escort ship on its own. But the pilots of the Clyne Team, besides three of them being in more powerful GINNs, were all elite pilots who would probably take seven or more Moebiuses to down.

On top of that, though, the G-weapons were powerful enough to make even GINNs look frail by comparison, and ZAFT quickly broke the mobile armor formations.

"Alright, the G-weapons are to go after the ships now," said Lily. "The wingman will cover from mobile armors for you."

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"Something's wrong," said Halberton. "This isn't like her…"

"I hear the General is supposed to be close friends with the Grimaldi Falcon," said Hoffman. "If I recall, his 'lessons of war' include a statement favoring simple plans." He nodded to the battle at the front of the fleet. "With the X-numbers, a frontal assault is doing the job fine."

"I doubt it," said Halberton, turning to the sensor operator. "Scan the area for evidence of other ZAFT ships! If I know the General, she's got an ambush or a flanking maneuver setup for us!"

"Yes sir!"

_But…_ thought Halberton, _if this is anything like back during the Grimaldi Conflict… she's probably still at least one step ahead of me._

* * *

Unfortunately for Halberton, he was right about being one step behind Lily, ordering the search for additional forces not even a minute before a pair of _Laurasia_-class frigates suddenly lit up their engines and "descended" on the fleet from the planar north, launching mobile suits as they did so.

Several of the mobile armor squadrons tangling with the mobile suits at the front, as well as the handful that had been held back for fleet defense, rushed to try and intercept. The _Drake_-class escort ships at the rear of the fleet began to orient themselves upwards as well in order to bring as many missile pods to bear on the new arrivals as possible.

Unfortunately, the Blood Princess and her Knights weren't about to let that go by without punishment—as the four stolen Gundams rushed at different enemy ships with their wingman flying cover, Lily, Rau and the four pilots flying off the _Fairchild_, Christian Rosenthal, Riika Sheder, Luna Blackwell and Elliot Sutherland leveled their machineguns and opened up on the breaking mobile armors, shredding them from behind with a storm of bullets.

"_Bastards!_" cursed a Moebius pilot over an open channel as he fired his missiles on Luna's GINN. The Blood Knight fell back, allowing her wingman to shoot forward and pump the Moebius full of bullets, leaving the missiles unguided and easily evaded.

Meanwhile, the Aegis shifted to mobile armor form as it flew at a _Drake_-class and latched its claw onto the escort ship's vulcan turret. Athrun pulled the trigger, blasting a mortar of energy through the _Drake_-class, completely obliterating the turret he was latched to in the process, and flew away from the crippled warship.

"Rebecca, I'm going under Mirage Colloid," said Nicol as the two flew at a _Drake_-class, "targeting… the _Nelson_."

"_Roger that,_" said Rebecca; as the Blitz disappeared under Mirage Colloid, Nicol couldn't help but think that her voice sounded far too sweet for a soldier.

When the Blitz disappeared, Rebecca fired her thrusters in reverse and leveled her machinegun at the _Drake_-class, opening fire full auto, but not really bothering to aim, instead focusing on her surroundings so that she wouldn't be caught unawares when an enemy attacked her.

Then, the Blitz suddenly rematerialized in front of the bridge of the _Nelson_-class cruiser next to the _Drake_ it had been charging at earlier, catching the enemy off-guard as he fired the Gleipnir through the bridge; the drill-like weapon shot out the other side and expanded into a grappling hook-like form. Then, Nicol pulled back with everything he had, tearing the entire bridge tower off as he fired several shots from his beam rifle into the cruiser's weapons before quickly pulling back to rejoin Rebecca.

"Take this!" shouted Dearka, dodging fire from a _Drake_ as he leveled both rifle and gun-launcher and shot both straight at the centerline of the ship several times in rapid succession until he blasted a hole through it. He then shot a barrage of missiles into the hole, causing the entire ship to explode like it had been stuff full of firecrackers.

Yzak, knowing better than to fly completely off the handle, went straight for the ship Shiho directed him towards under covering fire from her CGUE. He broke away to get a better firing angle, sidling alongside the _Nelson_ cruiser and began firing repeated shots from his rifle and railgun until the ship was completely and utterly pulverized as its internal munitions stores went off.

"Damn it!" cursed Yzak angrily as he pulled back, sticking near Shiho as per his orders. "How the hell am I gonna get a shot at that white machine like this?!"

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"_Seleukos_ is hit, it's out of commission," said one of the bridge operators. "_Cassandros_, not responding."

"_Antigonos_ and _Ptolemaios_ are down!" said another operator.

"How can that be?" asked Hoffman, gasping in surprise. "Four vessels destroyed only three minutes into the battle?"

"The _Seleukos_ and _Cassandros_ are moving," said a third operator. "They've sustained heavy damage and are withdrawing from the battle."

"Understood," said Halberton, "try to send them a communiqué to keep an eye out for enemy ambushes as they retreat! I doubt the General would use such underhanded tactics… but I wouldn't put it past her either."

"Yes sir."

* * *

"Athrun and Nicol are too soft for my taste," said Rau. "Show the enemy mercy and you only encourage them to come at you with a new weapon in hand. Are you sure we shouldn't finish those vessels off General?"

"_Le Creuset, I would shut up while you're ahead,_" growled the General. "_In war, the best thing is not to shatter and destroy the enemy, but to take them whole and intact. When the enemy can no longer do battle, their deaths can only be murder. Is that __**clear**__, Le Creuset?_"

"Yes, of course," said Rau, gunning down a Moebius. "I was merely wondering as to your thoughts."

"_Then my opinion is established. Cover me._"

A trio of mobile armors charged at the white CGUE, but Rau quickly picked all of them off as the General charged at a _Nelson_, dodging under its fire as she opened up on the hull. When she was close, she swung her sword though the area she'd hit, cutting a hole in the armor through which she proceeded to crash her CGUE. Rau winced slightly in a brief flash of sympathy for the crew—he knew what the General was doing as she proceeded to fly her machine through deck after deck of the soft interior… and then suddenly blasted back out behind the bridge tower. Detonations chained along the length of the hull, and by the time the General and Crucible had regrouped, the cruiser exploded.

"That is a suicidal tactic… the sort of move I would expect from Falcon, not from you General," said Rau.

"_It will work better if I can get my hands on a beam saber and that Phase Shift armor,_" she replied. "_Now let's go!_"

* * *

The _Archangel_

To say the crew was frustrated would've been an understatement—they were still under orders not to join the battle at large, despite the fact that their ship had more firepower than any _three_ other ships of the fleet and was at least five times as maneuverable as any of them.

_BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!_

"Huh?" muttered Murrue. She picked up the phone mounted on her armrest, intended for various quick communications purposes for the _Archangel_'s captain.

"_Hey, why am I still on standby?_" asked Mu. "_Those four machines are at it again, and now they're backed by the Clyne Team! The 8__th__ Fleet is in deep trouble!_"

"Lieutenant La Flaga…" said Murrue.

"_It's not as if my mobile armor alone will make much of a difference,_" said Mu, "_but still…!_"

"Our ship hasn't been signaled to join in yet," said Murrue. "Please remain on standby."

"_But that's…_" started Mu, but Murrue turned off the link. She sighed lightly, feeling much the same as Mu. Coming to a quick decision, Murrue looked over her shoulder at Miriallia.

"Connect me to the _Menelaos_!" she ordered.

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"_Xerxes_ and _Paris_, moving out front," announced a _Menelaos_ operator.

"X numbers approaching!" warned a second officer.

"Use the main guns! Shoot them down!" ordered Hoffman.

"We're connecting real time with the _Archangel_," informed a communications officer. Halberton, frustrated by the battle, opened the link.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"_We wish to pull away from the fleet,_" said Murrue. "_It's imperative that we begin our descent sequence now, Admiral. Please authorize it!_"

"You can't be serious!" exclaimed Halberton.

"Are you people trying to flee this battle to save yourselves?" asked Hoffman. On the screen, Murrue scowled.

"_This ship is the enemy's target!_" she said. "_We must move away from you! If not, the whole fleet will be destroyed! Alaska is out of the question, but from here, we could still reach Earth Forces territory! We can shake off the GINNs and ZAFT vessels in the Earth's atmospheric interface. Admiral!_"

Halberton sighed. He looked at one of the sensor boards as another escort ship was destroyed.

"Murrue Ramius, you haven't changed a bit," said Halberton with a slight smile, looking back at the display screen, "still as reckless as ever."

"_As you well know, a subordinate learns from her superior,_" retorted Murrue.

"Very well," said Halberton. "Commence preparations for the _Archangel_'s descent on the double. We'll provide cover for you up to the entry interface. We won't allow one single enemy to get past us."

"_Yes sir!_" said Murrue as the communiqué cut.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"_All hands, prepare for atmospheric entry interface!_" announced Miriallia over the PA.

"Descending?" questioned Mu incredulously in the hangar. "With the situation we're in?"

"What good's it gonna do you to yell at me?" asked Murdoch. "But I guess it's better than sitting around not doing anything."

"Even if we lose the ZAFT ships and GINNs, there are still those four machines," came another voice suddenly, and everyone in the hangar turned in shock to see Kira and Lacus in pilot suits floating towards the Sakura and Strike.

"Hey, kids!" called Murdoch in surprise.

"We'll stand by in our machines," said Lacus, smiling.

"We're still at level one battlestations, right?" asked Kira.

With that, the two teens turned their attention fully to their respective machines.

"I thought they got off this ship," said Murdoch, frowning with Mu.

"They're still at such a young age," commented Mu, "and already, they've been exposed to their share of war and battlefields. It's gonna make their lives tough."

* * *

The _Menelaos_

As the _Archangel_ began to pull away, Halberton turned to the _Menelaos_ chief communications officer, and nodded. The comm. officer immediately opened a fleet-wide communications channel.

"_Menelaos _addressing all ships controllers, this is Halberton!" called the admiral. "From here on, the focus of our energies will be to protect the _Archangel_ until it reaches the atmosphere's entry interface! We expect this to be a harsh battle, but if we are to win the conflicts that lie ahead, we cannot afford to lose this ship! Reassemble the formation! With the will and determination of the 8th Fleet, we'll make certain that not one single enemy gets through! We'll show them what the Earth Forces are made of!"

As Halberton's speech/orders were heard, the soldiers of the 8th Fleet, with renewed determination, regrouped their formation around the _Menelaos_, determined to make their commanding officer proud.

* * *

A Moebius shot down a GINN, only to be taken out by the shoulder-mounted gatlings of a GINN Assault Type from the Clyne Team. Three more mobile armors fired off all their missiles at the Blitz, and although Nicol managed to shoot two down, he was forced to simply tank the rest with his Phase Shift armor; as he did so, Rebecca took advantage of their distraction to gun down all three Moebiuses with precision burst-fire from her 27mm armor-piercing assault rifle.

Four Moebiuses clustered up in a rotating formation, firing their linear guns in rapid succession on Christian and Riika of the Clyne Team; the two dodged and returned fire with their machineguns, only for the Moebiuses to break apart. One fired off its missiles, vulcans and linear gun at Riika all at once while the other three each let loose with a different weapon on Christian.

Christian's GINN Assault Type tanked the several dozen bullets from the vulcan cannons as he shot down the four wire-guided missiles and let loose with his leg-mounted Pardus missiles and fired off grenades, but then the round fired from the last Moebius blasted straight through his armor, tearing through the right shoulder and leaving him off-balance, allowing the Moebius to shred him with its vulcans, even as its companions were taken out by Christian's missiles.

"_Christian!_" cried Riika as she saw her wingman go down. She successfully put a burst of gunfire through the Moebius attacking her, but then one of its missiles hit her GINN's left arm, blasting it apart. "_Ahh!_"

Vulcan fire suddenly tore the Moebiuses apart as Lily and Rau rushed to Riika's defense.

"_Riika, withdraw,_" said Lily calmly as she and Rau fired on several mobile armors. "_You can't do anymore good with your machine in that state._"

"_Y-yes General!_"

"So even the Blood Knights can be shot down," commented Rau as he and Lily covered Riika's retreat.

"_Anyone can be shot down,_" replied Lily. "_Endymion proved that; even the Southern Cross fell there._"

"Yes… hmm?" A message popped up on one of Rau's screens. "The legged ship…"

"_So Halberton's going to use the 8__th__ Fleet as a shield to let that ship reach Earth,_" commented Lily. There was a brief pause; she was probably assessing the situation. "_Nicol, Athrun, Elsman, Joule, we're breaking from the main engagement. We'll pursue the legged ship as far as we can; your firepower will be necessary to break through the final enemy defense line._"

"_Yes ma'am!_"

In total, only half a dozen GINNs had been lost including Christian's Assault Type, and both Riika's GINN and Commander Porto's CGUE had been forced to retreat back to their motherships. The _Ziegler_ and _Galvani_, still bearing down from the planar north, let loose another barrage into the 8th Fleet, sending two more ships up in flames, just as they'd been doing since first launching mobile suits.

The whole battle was tipped firmly in ZAFT's favor, thanks to the surprise flanking maneuver and the tremendous power of the stolen Gundams, leaving only a handful of mobile armors and allowing the Clyne and Le Creuset Teams to break off and try to punch through the 8th Fleet formation.

As the ten mobile suits approached the 8th Fleet's final defensive line, all of the warships opened up with everything they had. The CGUEs and GINNs were all forced back, with the exception of Chrono on Dearka's wing, but the four stolen Gundams opened with everything they had, successfully obliterating a pair of escort ships. Yzak didn't wait for Shiho to take back her position on his wing, charging through the hole.

"Yzak you're disobeying orders!" shouted Dearka as he gave chase, Chrono still on his wing.

"_Shut up!_"

Athrun and Nicol didn't disobey orders, instead waiting for their wingman to regain position, but unfortunately, the 8th Fleet used the opportunity to close up the hole behind the Duel, Buster and GINN.

"_Yzak Joule, don't think your mother's position will get you out of trouble with me,_" came Lily's cold voice. But Yzak didn't care, instead continuing to gun for the legged ship.

* * *

The _Archangel_

"_The Duel, the Buster and a GINN have broken through the 8__th__ Fleet,_" announced Mir over the PA. Murdoch and the other mechanics gasped.

"_The __**Menelaos**__ is engaged in combat!_" added Kuzzey, though his voice was only heard over the intercom of the mobile weapons.

"Lieutenant La Flaga!" said Kira.

"_Yeah, I know,_" said Mu. He called the bridge. "_Captain! Let us fight to the last second! How much time's left?_"

"_Don't be ridiculous,_" said Murrue sternly. "_You want us too…_"

"_According to the catalogue specs,_" came Lacus's voice suddenly, "_the Strike and Sakura are able to undergo reentry on their own._"

* * *

"Lacus, what are you…?" asked Murrue, surprised to see Lacus again, much less in the cockpit of the Strike. The bridge crew gasped in surprise. "What are you doing there? I thought you…?"

"_Captain,_" came Kira's voice, just as suddenly as Lacus's. "_If this keeps up, the __**Menelaos**__ will be in great danger. Come on captain!_"

Murrue hesitated, uncertain on what to do. Natarle, sighing slightly in her own well-concealed worry, made a decision, and hit a button the unoccupied mobile weapon control station.

"Alright then," she said, "but you must return before we reach phase three; the specs may say it's possible, but it hasn't actually been tested. We don't know what'll happen to the interior, so keep a constant eye on the altitude and time."

"_Yes ma'am,_" said Kira and Lacus as the communiqué cut out.

Murrue stood up, glaring down at Natarle.

"Ensign Badgiruel!" she said.

"If this ship is destroyed, the sacrifices of the 8th Fleet will have been in vain!" said Natarle. Murrue's eyes narrowed as the two women began a glaring match that made the rest of the bridge crew feel nervous—with one exception.

_I wonder who will crack first_, thought Sophia.

* * *

Down on the hangar deck, the Strike and Sakura were loaded into the catapults. Murdoch watched this with a worried expression on his face, one mirrored by Mu in the Zero.

"Even I have never made a sortie in this kind of situation…" muttered Mu as the Aile Striker was attached to Lacus's mobile suit and the catapults were opened as the Sakura took hold of the Schwert Gewehr. He keyed the radio. "Hey you two, be careful when you get out there, okay?"

"Yeah, we will be," said Kira as the he looked out at the Earth them. "It's beautiful… it's a shame that we have to see it in a situation like this."

"_Yes,_" agreed Lacus. "_But when this is all over… I think we should try to see it, when we can take the time to truly enjoy it._" She paused. "_Kira… I've got a bad feeling…_"

"Yeah, so do I," said Kira. "But there isn't much we can do but go ahead and launch, so…" He paused, shaking his head. "Well, let's go. Kira Yamato, Sakura launching!"

"Lacus Hirano, Strike launching!" called Lacus. The two Coordinators hit the controls, and the catapults launched them away from the ship at high speed. As they cleared the catapults, they activated their Phase Shift armor, and the Zero was quickly moved onto one of the empty catapults.

"Alright, let's see what I can pull off," muttered Mu.

* * *

The _Menelaos_

"Sir," called a sensor operator in surprise. "X105 Strike and P00 White Frame have both launched from the _Archangel_!"

"What are they thinking?" questioned Halberton in confusion. "Where did they get the pilots?!"

* * *

"So they've launched off their mobile suits," said Lily as she shot down a missile barrage. She smirked suddenly as something else emerged from the legged ship. "Well… the Hawk… it's been awhile since I've had a challenge."

Rau could practically _feel_ Lily's blood knight spirit taking hold at the thought of fighting an opponent like Mu again. A part of him hoped that she'd lose all rational thought in her desire for a good battle, but most of him knew better—if she hadn't known it before, she'd definitely learned her lesson about that at Endymion.

At that moment, Rau spotted something on sensors.

"The _Gamow_?" he questioned. The second ship of his team was moving forward, all guns blazing and its path a direct intercept course with the legged ship. "Has Zelman gone suicidal?"

* * *

Kira and Lacus blazed out to aid the 8th Fleet when suddenly they began to slow and shake.

"Must be gravity, pulling me down," muttered Kira. He pressed a button and pushed more force to his thrusters, blazing away even faster, the Strike at his side, obviously having done the same.

In the Duel, Yzak smirked as he caught sight of the two mobile suits.

"There you are, you damn Natural… finally got the courage to show your face again," said Yzak, his voice dangerously calm with a distinctly sinister undertone. He reached up and grabbed a saber. "This is for the nasty wound!" The Duel blazed at the Sakura.

"The Duel? Upgraded?" muttered Kira as the Duel fired two rounds from its railgun at him. He dodged, and parried with the anti-ship sword as the Duel swung its saber. He broke away, and fired at the Duel with his Igelstellungs.

Lacus's eyes narrowed as both the Buster and the blue GINN closed in on her.

"You won't win!" she said as she fired four shots in rapid succession, forcing the two to separate. Both attempted to fire on her, but Lacus evaded the gun-launcher shot from the Buster, blocked the beam rifle shot with her shield, and allowed her PS armor to absorb the precision shots from the GINN.

The Buster fired missiles at her, but she gunned most of the projectiles down with her Igelstellungs, and blocked the remainder with her shield.

Then the Moebius Zero arrived to join the battle, deploying gunbarrels and bringing two to bear on each of Lacus's opponents.

* * *

"Captain Zelman, this is an order," said Lily coolly. "_Pull back_."

"_But we can't let them escape!_"

"What you're doing isn't going to ensure the destruction of the legged ship, only the loss of a good crew," said Lily, voice still calm and cool. "So I repeat: you are ordered to withdraw."

Even as Lily ordered the _Gamow_ back, she and the others took advantage of the distraction its approach had caused, blasting their way through the 8th Fleet formation and heading for the engagement with the legged ship's mobile weapons, with several of the Earth Forces vessels turning in order to continue engaging them, even at the risk of plunging into the atmosphere themselves.

"… _Yes… General,_" said Zelman at last. The _Gamow_ fired reverse thrusters and began to turn around to withdraw, its cannons rotating so as to continue firing on the 8th Fleet. Even as it did so, numerous blasts from the 8th Fleet vessels smashed into the frigate's hull.

* * *

The Buster dodged a shot from the Strike and returned fire with its rifle and gun-launcher, but Lacus defended with her shield. Mu, taking advantage of Dearka's distraction, brought all of his weapons to bear on the Buster and opened fire, directing everything right at the center of the Buster's torso.

The Phase Shift armor managed to hold up just fine, but the sheer force of the impacts sent it tumbling down towards Earth.

"Ugh, this machine's getting heavy!" muttered Dearka, firing thrusters to try and get back into the fight, but Mu kept firing on the Buster.

Chrono dodged a shot by Lacus and slammed into the Strike, sending the Gundam tumbling away. He then spun and opened fire on the Zero, drawing Mu's attention. The Hawk of Endymion redirected all of his firepower at the GINN, but Chrono evaded and pumped two of the gunbarrels full of bullets in rapid succession.

"Oh crap," muttered Mu as the GINN was suddenly in his face, swinging its sword at him. He pulled the Zero around to dodge, but the sword cut off the barrel of the linear gun, and Chrono proceeded to open up full auto on the mobile armor. Several bullets pierced the fuselage, but then the magazine ran empty and the blue GINN was forced to pull away as Lacus opened fire once again.

"_Archangel_, this is La Flaga," said Mu. "I've been hit and am returning to the ship."

"_Roger that._"

Meanwhile, Kira continued to tangle with the Duel, his sword locked with the Duel's beam saber. Eyes narrowing, Kira opened fire with his Igelstellungs as they broke away from each other, and then fired his right gatling gun, loaded up with high-explosive rounds, aiming them at the Duel's face.

The PS armor protected even that part of the Duel, but the explosions momentarily blinded Yzak. Kira took advantage of that to charge forward and swing the Schwert Gewehr in a two-handed grip. Yzak regained sight just in time to raise his shield to defend, but the blow sent the Duel tumbling into the atmosphere, its mass too great for thrusters to overcome gravity and inertia, pulling him deeper in.

"_DAMN YOU!_" roared Yzak over an open channel.

Kira was just considering whether or not to finish the Duel off with his beam rifle when he suddenly sensed a familiar presence and tossed himself back, dodging an attack by Le Creuset's CGUE.

* * *

"Rebecca, Chrono, Yūno, Shiho, deal with the pursuit ships," ordered Lily. "Athrun, go support Le Creuset. Nicol, you're with me."

"_Ma'am._"

Lily soared at the Strike, her sword drawn.

_Yes_, she thought, _yes, there's no doubt about it. Lacus…_

"No way…" gasped Lacus, freezing in shock. "Sis…"

A round from Lily's CGUE pierced the Strike's rifle, and Lacus instinctively tossed it away, bringing her shield up to defend against the explosion.

"Nicol, change of plans," said Lily as her sword was parried by the Strike's beam saber—in a manner virtually identical to the parries Lily had taught her sister several months back. "Go take out the 8th Fleet ships pursuing us."

"_Ah… yes General… but didn't you say…?_"

"I know what I said about flying solo; deal with the pursuit ships anyway!"

"_Yes ma'am!_" said Nicol, scared by the way she'd barked the order at him.

The Blitz pulled away. Shaking her head slightly, Lily proceeded to make three quick slashes that Lacus only barely parried, then twisted her sword around to knock the beam saber out of the Strike's hand, reaching out and grabbing its shoulder, establishing a direct contact link that would let her communicate with her sister undetected.

"Hi Lacus," she said softly, a warm tone in her voice for the first time since she'd launched to assist in the attack on Kaohsiung. "I'm glad to hear you're safe." Even as she spoke, she continued to mock attack, kneeing the Strike's hip.

"_Lily, I…_"

"It's fine… I trust you Lacus," said Lily. "I know you wouldn't do this without good reason, so let me just say this: be careful of the Atlantic Federation higher-ups. A lot of them are Blue Cosmos."

"_Sis…!_"

Lily broke the contact, kicking the Strike in the torso. Lacus instinctively fired the Igelstellungs, but her aim was off (neither were sure if it was intentional), and the bullets went far wide of the CGUE as Lily shot back into space to escape the pull of gravity.

Examining the situation, she smirked slightly—the enemy fleet was broken, only a handful of ships and mobile armors left.

"Yūno, it's time to put that cannon to use," she said. "Everyone, open fire on the legged ship! Divert their course into ZAFT territory! Nicol, make good use of that rifle; don't let the enemy mobile suit return to its mothership, but _do not_ destroy it. If it's intact, the enemy will need to put in more effort to keep themselves all together."

"_Yes ma'am!_"

* * *

The _Archangel_

"Captain, we have two minutes before reaching phase three of entry interface!" said Neumann. "Preparing to release ablative gel now!"

"Order the Strike and White Frame to return at once!" ordered Murrue.

"Kira, Lacus, return to the ship immediately!" said Mir. "We have only two minutes left to phase three!"

"Captain, the enemy mobile suits are opening fire on the ship!" cried Kuzzey.

* * *

Kira and Rau clashed, heavy sword against beam saber, the Schwert Gewehr already lost. Athrun fired his beam rifle at the Sakura, but Kira managed to break away, and it was becoming increasingly evident that his greater thrusters gave him the advantage, even outnumbered two-to-one by Rau and the Aegis, where he would normally have been slaughtered by this point.

The ZAFT fleet and remaining mobile suits began to close in on what was left of the 8th Fleet. A GINN armed with a Cattus bazooka and another armed with a Canis double heavy missile launcher on each arm moved to join the atmospheric engagement.

The _Archangel_ reached phase three of atmospheric interface, forcing the crew to release ablative gel and making it impossible to open the catapults to bring the Strike and Sakura back aboard. The ZAFT forces let up their attack, no longer able to try and divert the ship's course.

"Athrun, we're at the limit," said Rau as he struggled to move. "My CGUE can no longer fight under these conditions. I'm not even sure I can break free of Earth's gravity."

"_The Aegis can,_" said Athrun, breaking from the engagement and shifting to mobile armor mode. He grabbed the CGUE in his machine's claws and shot away from the Earth.

Further away, Nicol began to run low on power and was forced to let up his attack on the Strike, allowing Lacus to regroup with Kira.

"Open fire," said Lily as soon as that was done.

Immediately, all of the GINNs let loose with everything they had on the two prototype mobile suits. The machinegun rounds were no threat, but the impact and explosions from the bazooka rounds and missiles blasted the two machines down towards Earth, sending them tumbling into the atmosphere.

A few seconds later, a beam lanced out from the _Menelaos_ and blasted the remaining GINN Assault Type from behind, obliterating it.

"_Luna!_" cried Elliot, furiously turning his guns on the carrier.

Unable to do anything more about the legged ship and its mobile suits, Lily made a snap decision.

"All forces are to withdraw," she ordered, even as she fired on the _Menelaos_. "The battle is over."

"_But General we can at least finish off the 8__th__ Fleet!_"

"No," said Lily sternly, pulling back while continuing to fire on the _Menelaos_ as a diversionary tactic. "To continue fighting now would be meaningless; there's no reason to get ourselves killed."

Somewhat reluctantly, all the ZAFT forces obeyed her command, pulling back from the 8th Fleet engagement.

On the _Menelaos_, Halberton let out a sigh of relief.

"What's the status of the _Archangel_?" he asked.

The answer made his blood run cold.

* * *

The _Archangel_

The crew stared in horror as the Strike and Sakura plunged into the atmosphere on a completely different path from them. They were both low on power after that last barrage that had caught everyone off-guard, and all they could do now was raise their shields in front of them to try and help with the heat build-up.

"Kira! Lacus!" cried Tolle when he saw what was happening.

"No way…" muttered Sai.

"Are they attempting reentry on their own?!" questioned Natarle incredulously.

"It looks like it," said Sophia. "How good are those specs?"

"How good the specs are doesn't matter!" said Arnold. "Their descent angle differs from our own! They're gonna land in a completely different zone!"

Tolle quickly started inputting calculations on his console.

"Computer calculates that they'll land in Northern Africa!" he said.

"But that's right in the middle of ZAFT territory!" exclaimed Pal.

"And there's no way for them to make it back here in their state," muttered Murrue. "Alright, fine, bring us under them! The _Archangel_'s thrusters should be powerful enough for that!"

"Yes ma'am!" said Arnold without hesitation, beginning to divert their course to bring it under their two mobile suits.

"If they can get on the top deck, then the _Archangel_ should be able to shield them from the worst of the reentry heat," said Sophia. "Haw! Instruct them to land as soon as possible!"

"Ah… yes ma'am," said Mir, keying the radio. "Kira, Lacus, we're bringing the ship under you! If you can hear me, then please land on top of the ship as soon as possible!"

* * *

Kira and Lacus heard Miriallia, and watched as the _Archangel_ moved closer, finally settling beneath them. The two then proceeded to fire up their thrusters a bit more to increase speed and land on the top deck of the ship. They could hear voices over the radio, but were already too delirious from heat to really understand.

"_The Strike and White Frame have landed on the ship,_" said Pal.

"_Alright!_" came Tolle's voice.

"_Please respond,_" came Mir's voice. "_Kira, Lacus, please respond!_"

"_Are you two okay?_" came Murrue's voice.

"_Kira! Lacus!_" cried Sai.

That was the last thing they heard before everything went black.

* * *

**Author's Notes: That's right, I've saved the refugees, _again_ (I did that in the defunct and deleted _SEED: Legends_). I also show off Lily in personal combat.  
**

**Highlights of this chapter for me include: Halberton's survival, Lily's unpredictable character and hypocrisy, and most especially the scene between Kira, Lacus and Flay. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Flay is one of my favorite characters, so expect to see a lot of exploration of her and a certain amount of favoritism in terms of making sure she gets to develop.**

**Sorry that I'll be leaving you all on this pseudo-cliffhanger for three weeks, but it seemed a better place to stop than I could've really hoped for. My only regret is that I can't show Lily's motive for pulling some of the shit she did regarding Lacus here, as it just didn't fit in this chapter.**

**Alright then, can't hang around any longer, I need to get going. It's off to Friday Night Magic for me. Wish me luck!**

**Please leave reviews with all your love! :P Ja ne!**


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